ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the historical development of the trade-labour linkage from the nineteenth century to the modern day. It shows the diversity of forms this policy instrument has taken in imperial treaties, sectoral agreements, multilateral organisations, conditional preference schemes, regional integration projects, and bilateral free trade agreements. It focuses in particular on the policies advanced in Western Europe and the United States and how those were received and responded to in the global South. The chapter argues that the changing dynamics of capitalist accumulation, international relations, ideological persuasions, and labour organisation all influenced the perception of who the linkage was for, the purpose to which it would be put, and the political will to bring it into being. All this holds important lessons for the progressive possibilities of trade-labour linkage in the future.
