This doesn't make any sense. Can you clarify this?
In 1776 the “Wealth of Nations” was published and demonstrated the theoretic superiority of Free Trade over governmental practices intended to produce a specie surplus. The latter required extensive and oppressive government involvement and control.
Smith believed that greater wealth was produced by getting rid of the mercantile policies of the government and adopting free trade.
So there was no “free trade vs an alternative” to choose from. Hamilton and other Founders knew that tariffs were taxes and relied on them because they had no choice.
However, their desire to limit government contradicted expanding it to control foreign trade. Given the state of the ability to tax which confronted the FF, the distortion of our economy by Royal Colonial laws, and the need to service the National Debt and pay the expenses of government only a tariff could accommodate all that.
We have gone past this point, never to return.