The "Conspiracy" of Free Trade: The Anglo-American Struggle over Empire and Economic Globalization, 1846-1896

Abstract

The opposite economical systems should be designated as those of the nationalistic and cosmopolitan schools. The nationalistic or protectivedefensive school . . . conceives of political economy as applicable only to the political bodies known as nations . . . The cosmopolitan, or so-called free trade school, ignores the existence of nations . . . Cobden would gladly see all boundary lines wiped from the map, and regards nations as necessary evils.