ABSTRACT
The standard history may be right in a general sense in pointing to developments in technologies and commercial interdependence as necessary preconditions for economic coercion. According to the standard history, many of the techniques of embargoes were honed over the millenia as adjuncts to military efforts. In the view of the standard history, the commercial life of industrial states together with the mechanized armed forces which defended those countries were "internationalized" by 1914; that is, by this time national economic vitality and the maintenance of modern instruments of war depended on global trade. The standard history simply claims that the prerequisites were fulfilled by the early twentieth century. Evidence of pre-twentieth century embargoes also calls into question the cumulative and progressive conception of the standard history. Certainly, "progress" occured. The review of pre-twentieth century embargoes is only an initial foray. Despite its limitations, though, some assessments of the standard history can be made.
