Chapter 7 examines Gulliver’s Travels Parts II and III, with particular focus on the role of ideology, namely religion and sectarianism, in the context of global politics and trade. Swift saw modern Europe as a once-unified constitutional and ideological system (Christendom) that fell into a state of decay – a process accelerated by ideologies and policies motivated by hubris and aggression, such as absolutism, militarism, colonialism, capitalism, and imperialism. In doing so he illustrated essential dynamics of modernity, science, technology, and globalization and implied that their unrestrained development would lead to conflict rather than cooperation. He painted a picture of Asian governments, namely Japan, as foils to European governments: while they were despotic at home, they followed rational self-interest abroad, enabling cordial trade relations and a balance of power. By contrast, modern European colonial powers are satirized as being blinded by the pursuit of commercial monopolies and hence objects of foreign manipulation.

Chapter 2 explores how networks of power both reinforced and blurred social and occupational boundaries for non-Muslims. It examines which professions they were barred from, which they were pushed into, and which they came to dominate. In some instances, demand for goods and services such as music, dance, and alcohol created negotiated spaces where Muslims relied on non-Muslims, illustrating how exclusion and dependence coexisted in ways that unsettled rigid divisions – a dynamic analyzed through the concept of heterotopia. At the same time, although formally restricted from certain trades, non-Muslims were entrusted with sensitive occupations such as banking and currency exchange that required significant trust. Many also became leading merchants or specialized craftsmen, using transnational networks of co-religionists to expand their influence, advocate for greater rights, and secure a stronger position in regional commerce. The chapter introduces some well-established non-Muslim trading firms.

Portugal, Castile, and Catalonia completed separate reconquests of Muslim territory. In 1469, Princess Isabel of Castile married her cousin, Prince Fernando of Aragón. After inheriting their respective thrones, they fought a war establishing separate areas of the world for Portugal and Castile to explore. In 1492, they defeated the last Muslim king of Granada and allowed Christopher Columbus to seek a westward route to Asia for Castile, avoiding the Portuguese route eastward. Instead of Asia, he happened upon the Americas, which had been unknown to European cosmography. That same year, the monarchs expelled Jewish subjects who refused to convert to Christianity, two centuries after England and France had done so. Isabel and Fernando established a religious inquisition to enforce Christian orthodoxy on the population as a whole, including new converts. In another decision with far-reaching consequences, they arranged marriages for their children with Portugal, France, England, and the Habsburgs of Central Europe. The unplanned consequence of the Habsburg alliance, together with a series of premature deaths, left their grandson, Charles of Ghent, heir to a large collection of territories in Europe, as well as all the lands claimed for Castile in the Americas.

This chapter takes stock of the evolution of the trade-environment nexus, focusing on the legal protection of the atmosphere. It offers a brief historical overview of the trade-environment debate, zooming in on the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. It then discusses the rationale, functioning, and legality of (1) multilateral trade measures incorporated in the 1987 Montreal Protocol and (2) unilateral trade measures adopted with a view to protecting the climate. The main conclusion is that, while much has changed since the Stockholm Conference – with new international legal regimes coming into being and many more trade-related environmental measures being adopted – some things have stayed the same, with North-South tensions continuing to form the main backdrop for trade-environment interactions and continuing uncertainty about the forum in which these interactions should be addressed.

Chapter 7 investigates how mental models shape Americans’ attitudes toward globalization, focusing on trade and immigration against a backdrop of growing economic nationalism under both the Trump and Biden administrations. Using survey data and conjoint experiments, the chapter reveals that individuals who think like economists (i.e., high economic knowledge) view trade and immigration more favorably. To address the concentrated harms of globalization they prefer strategies such as unemployment benefits and retraining programs rather than protectionist measures. By contrast, those with Alternative Mental Models tend to support protectionist measures that promise immediate relief but undermine long-term welfare. Crucially, people aligned with the Economist Mental Model are more responsive to new economic information; when presented with evidence of net gains, they adjust their stance in favor of globalization, and vice versa. This responsiveness underscores that their support for free trade and immigration is not blind but rooted in systematic cost–benefit analysis.

Chapter 6 examines zero-sum thinking (ZST) – the idea that one party’s gain must be another’s loss – and contrasts it with the Economist Mental Model (EMM), which recognizes that economic interactions can be positive-sum. Historically adaptive in static, resource-scarce settings, ZST becomes counterproductive in modern, dynamic economies built on cooperation and specialization. Using survey data from the US, the chapter differentiates between generic ZST (a broad tendency to see life as win-lose) and policy-specific ZST, which can reveal partisan divides. Democrats often display zero-sum views about redistribution, whereas Republicans do so regarding immigration or trade. Crucially, people with higher economic knowledge – those more aligned with the EMM – show markedly lower generic ZST and are less inclined toward protectionist policies than those with lower economic knowledge – aligned with Alternative Mental Models (AMMs).

Most of the classical empires collapsed in the middle of the first millennium, but despite this collapse various regions of the world became more culturally, commercially, and politically integrated in the millennium that followed, a process traced in this chapter. Mercantile and religious networks, including Islam, linked growing cities and glittering courts, where hereditary rulers and their entourages of elites developed institutions and ceremonies that strengthened royal authority, and created courtly cultures with distinctive codes of behavior. All of these relied for their wealth on a spread and intensification of agriculture, which happened in both the eastern and western hemispheres, and was interwoven with changes in social and gender structures. Cites such as Constantinople, Tenochtitlan, and Hangzhou grew into large metropolises, and religion, trade, and diplomacy motivated people to travel, creating regional and transregional zones of exchange in goods and ideas.

This chapter introduces the various processes by which the Song government obtains resources from its people to pay for its expenses, and also how the Song state, in pursuit of its interests, is able to manage economic activities. After outlining the dynamics of Song society and the economy, it introduces tensions generated by the various goals the fiscal administration pursued at different political and military periods. The third and main section of the chapter offers an overview of the different taxes and tax mechanisms that the state used to extract revenues from the various sectors of the economy. Emphasis is placed on the state tea and wine monopolies which were crucial both for public finance and for guidance of the Song economy. The conclusion offers some answers to the problems raised by the tensions within this system.

This chapter examines the horse trade at the Hengshan borderlands garrison, focusing on the 12th century Sino-Vietnamese borderlands. Interactions with indigenous Tai-speaking communities and neighboring upland kingdoms significantly shaped the salt and horse trade, thereby influencing regional dynamics and economic exchange. The study explores the roles of these local communities, contrasts overland and maritime trade routes, and investigates the efforts of the Southern Song and Lý courts to control the borderlands settlements. By examining trade and political undercurrents along the trade route known as the Ancient Road of the One Hundred Yue, the chapter highlights the interconnectedness of the borderland’s communities and their strategic importance for salt and horse trade. These interactions are crucial for understanding the broader historical and economic context of the region during the 12th century. By providing insights into everyday life at the Hengshan borderlands garrison, the chapter underscores the significance of the salt and horse trade in shaping the historical trajectory of the Sino-Vietnamese frontier in this period.

The Balkans Wars (1912–13) reshaped the European political order before the First World War. The victory of the Balkan League posed a particular challenge to Austria-Hungary. Berchtold sought to manage Serbian expansion through closer economic relations, but Belgrade rebuffed his proposal. Lacking the tools of economic statecraft to manage political change in the Balkans, Austro-Hungarian leaders began to turn towards the use of militarised diplomacy, ultimatums baced by threats of force, in 1913. The costs of the Balkan Wars opened the space for competition between French and German financial diplomacy. Despite some bankers’ efforts to collaborate, French and German governments directed loans towards their favoured states in the Balkans. The Balkan states also challenged international transport conventions in the name of nation-state sovereingty. The result of the Balkan Wars was a hardening of the alliance blocks, the instrumentalisation of economic interdependence for diplomatic and security interests, and the weakening of Austria-Hungary, whose political leaders increasingly saw military force as a solution to challenges in the Balkans.

This chapter examines the culmination of the militarisation of economic interdependence through Franco-Russian relations between 1912 and 1914. From summer 1913, French diplomats, for the first time, made a loan conditional on Russian military commitments. The Russian military was already working to accelerate mobilisation, but required finance to build railway infrastructure. French politicians also responded to the German threat by adding a third year of military service. These measures tested the fiscal capacity of the French state and governments became mired in crises over tax reform and loans in 1913 and 1914. An increasing willingness to countenance the use of military force was evident in Russian discussions to seize the Straits from the Ottoman empire in a future crisis, reflecting a lack of alternative economic instruments for Russia. The shift in Russian policy was encapsulated by the sacking of Vladimir Kokovtsov, a long-time advocate of foreign policy restraint, as Premier and Finance Minister.

In recent years, historians have asked whether economic interdependence was slowing or accelerating before the First World War. This chapter analyses international trade and capital flows with a particular focus on Europe. It shows that trade was growing and that growth accelerated following the 1907 financial crisis and downturn. Financial flows also grew, but within Europe, diplomatic considerations had an increasing effect on the direction of capital flows. Contrary to some interpretations, this chapter argues that the Balkans were well-integrated into an increasingly interdependent European economy. Despite concerns about imperial barriers to trade, the share of third parties trade with European colonies increased more rapidly in many cases compared to the imperial metropole. This international economic order required institutions, notably the Gold Standard. These institutions elevated the importance of Britain in the global economy. Patterns of European migration changed significantly in the decades before 1914. Migration was important in key factors of power politics, from population size to financial remittances.

The First World War occupies a central place in debates about effects of economic interdependence on international politics. This chapter examines how historians and IR scholars have explained the outbreak of war in 1914 between states with deep economic ties. It discusses the reciprocal effects of economic interdependence and power politics upon each other. By the early twentieth century, growing international trade and capital flows constituted an essential part of the international order, along with the institutions and practices of power politics. The chapter argues that the interdependence transformed power politics in ways that both sustained peace and created conditions for war. It sets out how that balance tilted towards militarisation from 1911.

Current thinking views the ancient cultures of the Mediterranean as highly interconnected. This contrasts with late twentieth-century ideas of either geographically separate regions or more developed centers that dominated less complex peripheral societies. A major inspiration for the present approach is a post-processual understanding of the complex dimensions of consumption. Elite burial goods at Lefkandi ca. 1100–825 BCE illustrate how imports were used in status strategies. In the eighth century BCE, there is a decrease in valuable grave goods as dedications of imported luxury items in public sanctuaries became the preferred means of elite display. Current views also reflect postcolonial understanding of non-indigenous settlements as sites of hybridity and inbetweenness, not the imposition of a colonizing ethnicity on local identities but new cultural syntheses. Examples include a large number of the early so-called Greek colonies. A recently excavated example is L’Amastuola in Apulia, an indigenous settlement of the late eighth century where Greeks came to live in the early seventh century.

This chapter examines the relationship between trade and sustainable development, including its developmental dimension. It argues that trade policy and international trade institutions must be integrated into broader international efforts to promote sustainable development. This requires an end to the siloed treatment of trade and other policy areas. It also requires a more holistic approach to international law-making, including greater cooperation among international organisations and a willingness to make trade-offs between competing goals. Finally, it requires a recognition of the different preferences of rich and poor countries and a willingness to address the power imbalances that exist in the global trading system.

This chapter analyses the WTO’s institutional features, focusing on rule-making and dispute settlement. It describes the creation of the GATT and the shift to the WTO, analysing salient aspects of the WTO’s structure. It reviews how WTO institutions have operated, highlighting problematic features and identifying potential reforms. The WTO is widely viewed as a seriously flawed institution. Despite its goal of promoting liberalised trade, members have found it virtually impossible to conclude new agreements. The dispute settlement system, once viewed as its crown jewel, now lies in tatters. While many factors have contributed to the current situation, the multilateral trading system’s institutional architecture is deeply implicated.

Chapter 6 explores the emergence of social inequality, prestige, and status through the lens of mortuary data from sites on the eastern plateau. Here, status and prestige appear to be based upon access to long-distance trade and the acquisition of weapons and costly exotic goods.