Food Riots as Social Systems Canaries

Tariff is essentially a tax that has been imposed on goods and services that are imported. The most fundamental use of a tariff is to restrict trade by increasing the cost consumers have to pay for imported goods and services. Some tariffs are termed specific tariffs as they are designed to levy a fixed fee on a particular type of item. A tariff that is levied according to the value of certain items is called an ad-valorem tariff.

Tariffs are used to shape trade policy and they can benefit governments and domestic manufacturers since they generate additional revenue -- but they do so at the expense of consumers and of foreign manufacturers. As a general rule, consumes will purchase goods that are manufactured in foreign countries since they tend to be priced lower than domestically produced goods. An inadvertent complication of tariffs is that they reduce global competition for domestic industries, and thereby tend to make the domestic industries in the affected sector less efficient. When competition heats up, countries that export counter with their own tariffs on goods imported into their countries, which can trigger trade wars. A number of agencies exist in order to combat unfairly steep and impactful tariffs -- the World Trade Organization is a prominent example of an association with this mission.

Non-tariff barriers (NTBs) take a different tack to trade restriction by employing conditions, prohibitions, or certain market requirements that make it difficult or expensive for target products to be imported or exported. Non-tariff barriers are an umbrella construct that include non-tariff measures (NTMs), which include technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary or phytosanitary (SPS) measures. A wide range of measures that are adopted by authorities or enacted by government can result in non-tariff barriers. These measures include conditions, laws, policies, regulations, restrictions, and specific requirements, as well as business practices or prohibitions -- all of which are designed to protect the interests of domestic industry from competition originated from other countries.

In October of 1905, a peculiar riot occurred in Santiago, Chile, that was a response to the tariffs levied against Argentine cattle importers. The riot in Santiago was violent and involved an estimated 50,000 to 12,000 people, approximately 600 of whom were from the working class. Other demonstrations occurred in other locations on the same day thoughout Chile. Cattle were imported into Chile from the pampas, a process that was facilitated by the construction of the Buenos Aires-Mendoza railroad. Even though the cattle were brought over the Andes, the railroad made the process quicker and without the marginal loss of animals that would have characterized the transport of cattle on foot or by carts. With faster transport, more cattle were moved to market and a lower price meant that the cattle that were not sold did not have to be brought back home on the arduous routes. Protectionist political behavior in the late 1890s was evidenced by the enactment of a tariff in 1897, which led to increased prices of staple foods, a condition theorized as a catalyst to the unrest because it meant that people had less money to spend on meat -- the price of which reportedly did not actually change substantively during this period. A group of demonstrators that included representatives from 10 neighborhood associations, a collection of mutual aid societies, and 41 trade unions did actually present a petition to President German Riesco in his home, and meet with him to discuss their concern and problems at length, but the protestors were unaware of the meeting and began to loot the stores lining the streets. Communication was not easily put into effect during those years and many of the protesters from the large group were not even aware that the meeting with the President was taking place. The looting intensified when the whistle blew for quitting time in factories in the town center, and it extended to police stations, private residences, telephone and telegraph lines.