ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief explanation of the collapse of free trade in the late-nineteenth century. For some twenty-five years during the mid-nineteenth century, the major economic powers of the world participated in what can readily be called a free trade system. From the mid-1850s to the late-1870s, states moved away from the economic closure that had marked their previous commercial relations. This historical appearance and disappearance of free trade is somewhat of a puzzle given our knowledge of the economic and political forces surrounding trade. Britain contributed to the decline of free trade by moving away from the actions that had allowed it to promote an avoidance of end games. In 1879, Germany switched it goals, from free trade to closure, but maintained the same type of policies, one based on unilateralism.
