ABSTRACT
THE growth of international trade in the nineteenth century was associated with a great increase in international specialisation. This is not to say that trade grew faster than production. British trade grew faster than British production throughout the nineteenth century, as the figures in the Appendix show. But world trade, at least in the forty years before 1913, was growing more slowly than world production. From 1850 to 1913, world production of primary products increased steadily at about 3.2 per cent per annum; 1 and from 1876/80 to 1913 the cumulative annual increase 2 in manufacturing production was 4.1 per cent, in trade in manufactures 3.3 per cent and in trade in primary products 3.4 per cent. World production and trade in primary products increased in almost exact proportions, but world trade in manufactures lagged behind world production of manufactures. Nevertheless, international specialisation was occurring rapidly, some countries curtailing primary and expanding industrial production, and becoming net importers of primary and net exporters of manufactured products, while other specialised in exporting primary and importing manufactured commodities.
