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How Much Trade Liberalization Was There in the World Before and After Cobden-Chevalier?

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Listed author(s):
  • TENA-JUNGUITO, ANTONIO
  • LAMPE, MARKUS
  • FERNANDES, FELIPE TÂMEGA

Abstract

The Cobden-Chevalier Treaty of 1860 is regarded as central turning point in nineteenth-century trade policy, inaugurating a free trade era in Western Europe. We reexamine this story and put it into global perspective with a new database covering more than 7,500 data points for 11 categories of manufactures in 41 countries and colonies around the world between 1846 and 1880. It reveals that bilateralism after 1860 reinforced a process already underway before. Nevertheless, we highlight that trade liberalization was a global phenomenon over most of our period, so that the prominent British case appears as typical rather than exceptional.

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Article provided by Cambridge University Press in its journal The Journal of Economic History.

Volume (Year): 72 (2012)
Issue (Month): 03 (September)
Pages: 708-740

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Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:72:y:2012:i:03:p:708-740_00
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Cambridge University Press, UPH, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8BS UK

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • O24 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Trade Policy; Factor Movement; Foreign Exchange Policy
  • N70 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - General, International, or Comparative
  • F13 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations

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Cited by:

  1. Manuel Llorca-Jaña, 2014. "The impact of early nineteenth-century globalization on foreign trade in the Southern Cone: A study of British trade statistics," Investigaciones de Historia Económica (IHE) Journal of the Spanish Economic History Association, Asociacion Espa–ola de Historia Economica, vol. 10(01), pages 46-56.
  2. Tena Junguito, Antonio & Federico, Giovanni, 2016. "Lewis revisited : tropical polities competing on the world market 1830-1938," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 23305, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
  3. Tena Junguito, Antonio & Federico, Giovanni, 2013. "The ripples of the Industrial revolution: exports, economic growth and regional integration in Italy in the early 19th century," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH wp13-02, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
  4. Federico, Giovanni & Tena Junguito, Antonio, 2016. "A tale of two globalizations: gains from trade and openness 1800-2010," CEPR Discussion Papers 11128, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  5. Tena Junguito, Antonio & Restrepo-Estrada, Maria Isabel, 2016. "The roots of regional trade in the Americas 1870 to 1950," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 23304, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
  6. Vincent Bignon & Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa, 2016. "Protectionism and the Education-Fertility Trade-off in Late 19th Century France," AMSE Working Papers 1604, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, Marseille, France, revised Jan 2016.
  7. Feuerstein Switgard, 2013. "From the Zollverein to the Economics of Regionalism," Journal of Economics and Statistics (Jahrbuecher fuer Nationaloekonomie und Statistik), De Gruyter, vol. 233(3), pages 367-388, June.

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