The motive behind the high tariffs imposed by nations on imports of manufactured goods, prior to world war ii, was to:

The answer is to safeguard domestic industries from foreign competition.
Tariffs are normally levied by domestic governments to safeguard new industries from foreign competition, to defend aging industries from foreign competition, to defend against foreign companies selling their products for a price lower than their expenditures and to make revenue.

The second , larger puritan colony of massachusetts bay was conceived as a "city upon a hill". but it also struggled with internal turmoil like the salem witch trials and external conflicts like king philip's (metacom's) war.