Introduction
In their 1953 Economic History Reviewarticle “The Imperialism of Free Trade,” historians John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson made two points that are still relevant for thinking about the relationship between global trade, imperialism, and international trade law. First, they emphasized the informal mechanisms that, alongside formal rule, ensured British expansion throughout the nineteenth century and, by doing so, they questioned the orthodox view that divided the century in periods of imperialism and anti-imperialism, emphasizing continuities instead. Secondly, they articulated a critique of the link between free trade and anti-imperialism that was thought to characterize this period, thereby challenging the conventional view according to which “free” trade could dispense with Empire. Taking the cue from this seminal article, the first section of this entry engages with the Empire of Free Trade, highlighting the role international law mechanisms and free trade ideology...
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Alessandrini, D. (2019). Global Free Trade, Imperialism and International Trade Law. In: Ness, I., Cope, Z. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91206-6_97-1
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