Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- POLITICS AND TRADE COOPERATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
- PART ONE COOPERATION AND VARIATION
- 1 International Cooperation Across Time and Space
- PART TWO DOMESTIC POLITICS AND TRADE POLICY
- PART THREE POLITICAL SUPPORT AND TRADE COOPERATION
- PART FOUR NORMS AND COOPERATION
- PART FIVE CONCLUSIONS
- References
- Index
1 - International Cooperation Across Time and Space
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Preface
- POLITICS AND TRADE COOPERATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
- PART ONE COOPERATION AND VARIATION
- 1 International Cooperation Across Time and Space
- PART TWO DOMESTIC POLITICS AND TRADE POLICY
- PART THREE POLITICAL SUPPORT AND TRADE COOPERATION
- PART FOUR NORMS AND COOPERATION
- PART FIVE CONCLUSIONS
- References
- Index
Summary
“[M]orality after all is not founded upon self-sacrifice, but upon enlightened self-interest, a clearer and more complete understanding of all the ties that bind us the one to the other. And such clearer understanding is bound to improve, not merely the relationship of one group to another, but the relationship of all men to all other men, to create a consciousness which must make for more efficient human co-operation, a better human society.”
– Norman Angell, 1912 (cited in Keegan 1999: 11–12)Economic relations between nations have grown increasingly cooperative in the last 200 years. Countries now depend on one another for staples, intermediate products, and consumer goods to an extent unimaginable 250 years ago. This cooperation rests on an extensive network of international organizations, less formal regimes, and treaties among states. Such institutions as the World Trade Organization (WTO), European Union (EU), North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), and Southern Cone Common; Market (MERCOSUR) play a central role in managing these international trade relations. As a result, we live in a highly institutionalized global economy.
Though its highly institutionalized form today dates only to the 1940s, extensive economic cooperation has been an important feature of international life since the middle of the nineteenth century. Scattered trade treaties appeared even earlier, including the Methuen Treaty between England and Portugal (1703), the Vergennes Treaty between England and France (1789), and the Ottoman capitulations (see Chapter 12).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Politics and Trade Cooperation in the Nineteenth CenturyThe 'Agreeable Customs' of 1815–1914, pp. 3 - 34Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007