Alexander Hamilton’s Report on the Subject of Manufactures (1791) was a visionary blueprint for transforming the young United States into an industrial power. Rejecting agrarian purism, Hamilton argued for federal intervention—tariffs, subsidies, and infrastructure—to nurture domestic industries, reduce reliance on European imports, and secure economic independence. His report sparked fierce debate with Jeffersonian agrarians but laid the ideological groundwork for the American System and modern industrial policy.