Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
General introduction
The analysis of European trade policy in the nineteenth century is of particular interest. This was not only the century in which the various mechanisms, institutions, and theories of modern trade policy took shape, but also a time when the growth of foreign trade was not just extremely rapid, but actually exceeded the growth in production. It has perhaps not been sufficiently recognized that at the end of the nineteenth century (which we take to end in 1914, as is the usual practice) the relative importance of exports in relation to the Gross National Product reached a level in Europe that it has not equalled since (if one excepts the period of upheaval linked to the recent oil price increases).
The nineteenth century saw both the flourishing of liberalism in theories of international trade, and the development of modern protectionism. The nature and structures of tariff legislation changed considerably. Former prohibitions on imports and exports disappeared almost entirely, as did export duties and the very wide-ranging privileges granted to national shipping interests. But, at the same time, new networks of preference were set up, as a result of the creation of numerous colonial empires.
The rapid expansion of trade was the cause but also partly the result of these changes of policy. Between 1815 and 1914 the total volume of exports in Europe probably multiplied by nearly forty-fold, whereas during the previous century it had at the most doubled or trebled.
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