IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-00879996.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

First globalization: why did France missed the boat?

Author

Listed:
  • Stéphane Bécuwe

    (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Bertrand Blancheton

    (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Léo Charles

    (GREThA - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée - UB - Université de Bordeaux - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Starting from Bairoch's observation of declining French foreign trade, especially in emerging markets during the first globalization (1880-1914), this article endeavours to identify the sources for the failure to exploit the opportunities afforded by global economic growth after 1870. For this purpose a comprehensive dataset of French imports and exports of unparalleled size was assembled to investigate the changes these underwent both in geographical and product distribution over a period of 64 years. Applying standard tests of trade flow concentration, we find that France's trade structure reflected its early intra-industry specialization which implied increasing reliance on 'proximity' markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Stéphane Bécuwe & Bertrand Blancheton & Léo Charles, 2013. "First globalization: why did France missed the boat?," Working Papers hal-00879996, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00879996
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00879996
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-00879996/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Markus Lampe, 2008. "Bilateral trade flows in Europe, 1857–1875: A new dataset," Research in Economic History, in: Research in Economic History, pages 81-155, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    2. Markus Lampe, 2011. "Explaining nineteenth‐century bilateralism: economic and political determinants of the Cobden–Chevalier network," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(2), pages 644-668, May.
    3. Jacks, David S. & Meissner, Christopher M. & Novy, Dennis, 2011. "Trade booms, trade busts, and trade costs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 185-201, March.
    4. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, December.
    5. Falvey, Rodney E., 1981. "Commercial policy and intra-industry trade," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 495-511, November.
    6. Béatrice Dedinger, 2006. "From virtual free-trade to virtual protectionism. Did protectionism have any part in Germany's rise to commercial power : 1850-1913," Post-Print hal-03611639, HAL.
    7. James Foreman-Peck (ed.), 1998. "Historical Foundations of Globalization," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1355.
    8. Ronald Findlay & Rolf G. H. Henriksson & Håkan Lindgren & Mats Lundahl (ed.), 2006. "Eli Heckscher, International Trade, and Economic History," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262062518, December.
    9. Michael A. Clemens & Jeffrey G. Williamson, 2004. "Why did the Tariff--Growth Correlation Change after 1950?," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 5-46, March.
    10. Weiller, Jean Sylvain, 1971. "Long-run Tendencies in Foreign Trade: With a Statistical Study of French Trade Structure 1871–1939," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(4), pages 804-821, December.
    11. Jacks, David S. & Meissner, Christopher M. & Novy, Dennis, 2010. "Trade costs in the first wave of globalization," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 127-141, April.
    12. Lampe, Markus, 2009. "Effects of Bilateralism and the MFN Clause on International Trade: Evidence for the Cobden-Chevalier Network, 1860-1875," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 69(4), pages 1012-1040, December.
    13. Tena-Junguito, Antonio, 2010. "Bairoch revisited: tariff structure and growth in the late nineteenth century," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 14(1), pages 111-143, April.
    14. J-C.Asselain & B.Blancheton, 2005. "Dynamique de l'ouverture internationale. Paradoxes, enjeux, éléments d'interprétation à partir du cas de la France," Economies et Sociétés (Serie 'Histoire Economique Quantitative'), Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), issue 32, pages 49-179, January.
    15. Béatrice Dedinger, 2012. "The Franco-German trade puzzle: an analysis of the economic consequences of the Franco-Prussian war," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 65(3), pages 1029-1054, August.
    16. Philippe Guillaumet, 2002. "Les relations commerciales entre la France et l'Europe depuis 1850. Impact sur la croissance économique de la France," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 82(3), pages 49-82.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stéphane BECUWE & Bertrand BLANCHETON & Léo CHARLES, 2012. "The decline of French trade power during the first globalization (1850-1913)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2012-22, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    2. Stéphane BECUWE & Bertrand BLANCHETON, 2011. "Tariff growth paradox between 1850 and 1913: a critical survey (In French)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2011-24, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    3. Stéphane Becuwe & Bertrand Blancheton & Christopher M Meissner, 2018. "Stages of diversification: France, 1836–1938," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 22(4), pages 430-461.
    4. Stephane Becuwe & Bertrand Blancheton & Leo Charles & Matthieu Clement, 2015. "Asymmetric influence of distance on french international trade 1850-1913," EcoMod2015 8552, EcoMod.
    5. MEISSNER Christopher & BECUWE Stéphane & BLANCHETON Bertrand, 2015. "France’s international insertion strategy in globalization in long run perspective 1836-1938," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2015-18, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    6. Stéphane Bécuwe & Bertrand Blancheton & Christopher Meissner, 2016. "The first great liberalization : Competition, Quality and Productivity," Post-Print hal-02149622, HAL.
    7. Timini, Jacopo, 2023. "Revisiting the ‘Cobden-Chevalier network’ trade and welfare effects," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    8. Liu, Dan & Meissner, Christopher M., 2015. "Market potential and the rise of US productivity leadership," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 72-87.
    9. Tena-Junguito, Antonio & Lampe, Markus & Fernandes, Felipe Tã‚Mega, 2012. "How Much Trade Liberalization Was There in the World Before and After Cobden-Chevalier?," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(3), pages 708-740, August.
    10. Meissner, Christopher M., 2014. "Growth from Globalization? A View from the Very Long Run," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 8, pages 1033-1069, Elsevier.
    11. Stéphane BECUWE & Bertrand BLANCHETON, 2014. "Relations internationales et discriminations tarifaires : le cas de la France (1850-1913)," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2014-07, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    12. Jacopo Timini, 2018. "The drivers of Italian exports and product market entry: 1862-1913 (Updated August 2020)," Working Papers 1836, Banco de España, revised Aug 2020.
    13. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6flqrv4et09btppk9s58qgp979 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Toshiki Kawashima, 2018. "A European Political-Economic Space That Embraced Japan: The International Context of the Conventional Tariff Network, CA. 1892-1914," CEH Discussion Papers 08, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    15. Klasing, Mariko & Milionis, Petros, 2012. "Reassessing the Evolution of World Trade, 1870-1949," MPRA Paper 39555, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Léo CHARLES, 2017. "A new empirical test of the infant-industry argument : the case of Switzerland protectionism during the 19th century," Cahiers du GREThA (2007-2019) 2017-11, Groupe de Recherche en Economie Théorique et Appliquée (GREThA).
    17. Cagé, Julia & Gadenne, Lucie, 2018. "Tax revenues and the fiscal cost of trade liberalization, 1792–2006," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 1-24.
    18. Brian D. Varian, 2018. "Anglo†American trade costs during the first era of globalization: the contribution of a bilateral tariff series," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(1), pages 190-212, February.
    19. Becuwe, Stéphane & Blancheton, Bertrand & Meissner, Christopher M., 2021. "The French (Trade) Revolution of 1860: Intra-Industry Trade and Smooth Adjustment," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(3), pages 688-722, September.
    20. Niklas Potrafke & Fabian Ruthardt & Kaspar Wuthrich, 2020. "Protectionism and economic growth: Causal evidence from the first era of globalization," Papers 2010.02378, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2022.
    21. David S. Jacks & Martin Stuermer, 2021. "Dry bulk shipping and the evolution of maritime transport costs, 1850–2020," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 204-227, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Commerce international; Commerce intra-branche; Première mondialisation; Spécialisation; France; International trade; Intra-Industry trade; 1st globalization; Specialization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N7 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-00879996. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.