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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2012

ANTONIO TENA-JUNGUITO ,
MARKUS LAMPE  and
FELIPE TÂMEGA FERNANDES
ANTONIO TENA-JUNGUITO*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Economic History and Instituto Figuerola, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, c/ Madrid, 126, Building 7, E-28902 Getafe, Madrid. E-mail: antonio.tena@uc3m.es.
MARKUS LAMPE*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Economic History and Instituto Figuerola, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, c/ Madrid, 126, Building 7, E-28902 Getafe, Madrid. E-mail: mlampe@clio.uc3m.es.
FELIPE TÂMEGA FERNANDES*
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Economics Department, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Rua Marquês de São Vicente, 225, sala 210F, Gávea 22451-900, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Banco Modal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, United Kingdom. E-mail: felipe.fernandes@modal.com.br.
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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.

Type
ARTICLES
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 72 , Issue 3 , 22 August 2012 , pp. 708 - 740
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2012

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