EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
A History of the World since 1300
Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Creating 19th Century Global Free Trade Notes taken on April 9, 2016 by Edward Tanguay |
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colonies, once marginal outposts of the global system, now emerging into dynamos
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receiving migrants
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de Tocqueville witnessed and Europeans watched
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these colonies began to be the envy of Europe
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societies that could be created as freed trade societies that could export agrarian products back to Europe
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this is what Britain had and which made her the envy of European rivals
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this is what Britain had as a de facto good after their rule was decreased in India
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free trade, a new model for stitching the global world together
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free trade
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this was not compulsory
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it was an international division of labor that was voluntary
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Britain had created a system of free trade within India itself
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with a penetration of railroads into the hinterlands
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communication technology breakthroughs
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important drivers and shifts
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1869 building of the Suez Canal
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French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps called it a triumph of engineering science
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allowed European trade to take the short route to India
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Britain could increasingly import its cotton from India
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cotton production spread across the Ganges plain
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tea was produced and important more from India
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Lipton tea advertised its tea more
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trade between England and India because of the Suez Canal became a bonanza and key in what became known as the Victorian boom
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prosperity of the late 19th century not released by these interconnected systems
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irrigation
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draining flood plains
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canals
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railroads
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allowed for the cheaper production of foodstuffs and other products for European exportation
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Britain began not only importing from the colonies, but exporting textiles to Asia
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redefined the global division of trade
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Britain became a hub for this new system
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exporting its manufactured goods through British ports
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Britain in fact became more dependent on global trade
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Britain's Gross Domestic Product that relied on international trade
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1830 about 10%
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1900 about 25%
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there was a process of increasing interdependence between societies
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the inversion of traditional roles
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centuries earlier Vasco da Gama had sailed to India in search of spices and high valued goods and all he had to offer were trinkets
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now Europeans had manufactured goods to offer in return for primary product imports
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growing imbalances behind this free trade
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Britain was more and more dependent on imports from the rest of the world
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faced increasing competition from other international manufacturing producers, particularly
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Germany
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United States
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having gotten rid of mercantilism, they had less means to protect British industrialists in their access to market shares around the world
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Britain began to accumulate trade deficits
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the amount that they could export lagged behind what they could export
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Britain became much more dependent on India itself
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it was India with which they had their best trade surplus
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this made Britain very reluctant to give up India
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they need India to continue to enjoy their centrality in the global economic system