ABSTRACT
Under the international economic order that prevailed between the end of mercantilism and decolonization (referred to in this essay as liberal imperialism), the costs of transacting, transporting and trading commodities, both within and across national and imperial frontiers, declined sharply. 1 To some discussable but unmeasureable degree, the opportunities to realize enhanced gains from trade also depended upon the political status of regional economies operating and interacting (through trade in commodities, capital flows, labour migration and the diffusion of useful knowledge) within a global economyexpanding along cycles of faster, slower and even negative rates of growth—but expanding, nevertheless, more rapidly than ever before.
