ABSTRACT
The evolution of the international economy during the period 1820 to 1998 has been largely a response to the changes that have occurred in the political, economic and technological environment within which economic relations between countries are conducted. The record demonstrates the slow but inexorable movement among the regions of the world economy towards greater integration. As a result of a number of developments, international trade increased dramatically in the second half of the nineteenth century, outstripping the growth of world output. Particularly important was the movement towards free trade up to the 1870s, even though it had faltered by the 1880s and was kept alive only by the United Kingdom and a few Continental countries, and the vast strides in steam transport technology which rapidly increased the flows of people and commodities across continents and from one continent to another by sea. This expansion of the international economy provided the mechanism for widespread economic growth in western Europe and its ‘offshoots’ abroad.
