The Rise of Free Trade
The Rise of Free Trade

Author: Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 530

ISBN-13: 9780415156318

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Why was Britain the first country to opt for unilateral free trade 150 years ago? On 16 May 1846, the House of Commons voted to abolish tariff protection for agriculture - the famous 'repeal of the Corn Laws'. Britain then adhered to her free trade policy despite both her relative economic decline and the protectionist policies of her leading trade rivals, the USA and Germany.This four volume set examines and explains the contentious issues surrounding the policy shift to free trade and the subsequent persistence of that policy. This set provides a comprehensive collection of articles including previously unpublished material on nineteenth century British trade policy and a new and comprehensive introduction by the editor putting the material into context.

Free Trade and Liberal England, 1846-1946
Free Trade and Liberal England, 1846-1946

Author: Anthony Howe

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780198201465

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The argument about the limits of Free Trade or Protectionism rages throughout the world to this day. Following the Repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, free trade became one of the most distinctive defining features of the British state, and of British economic, social, and political life. Whilethe United States, much of the British Empire, and the leading European Powers turned towards protectionism before 1914, Britain alone held to a policy which had seemingly guaranteed power and prosperity. This book seeks to explain the political history of this tenacious loyalty. While the TariffReform opponents of free trade have been much studied, this is the first substantial account, based on a wide range of printed and archival sources, which explains the primacy of free trade in nineteenth- and early-twentieth century Britain. It also shows that by the centenary of the Repeal of theCorn Laws in 1946, although British free traders lamented the death of Liberal England, they heralded, under American leadership, the rebirth of the liberal international order.