Description
Following the Second World War, the USA would grow to be the leading ‘neoliberal’ proponent of international trade liberalization. Yet for just about a century before, American foreign trade policy used to be dominated by extreme economic nationalism. What brought about this pronounced ideological, political, and economic about-face? How did it have an effect on Anglo-American imperialism? What were the repercussions for the worldwide capitalist order? In answering these questions, The ‘Conspiracy’ of Free Trade offers the primary detailed account of the controversial Anglo-American struggle over empire and economic globalization within the mid- to late-nineteenth century. The book reinterprets Anglo-American imperialism in the course of the global interplay between Victorian free-trade cosmopolitanism and economic nationalism, uncovering how imperial expansion and economic integration were mired in political and ideological conflict. Beginning within the 1840s, this conspiratorial struggle over political economy would rip apart the Republican Party, reshape the Democratic Party, and redirect Anglo-American imperial expansion for decades to come back.