ABSTRACT
Economic integration, defined as a process of economic unification of national economies, has been going on all through modern European history. Two factors have always stimulated integration: Technical progress and Political idealism. This chapter describes the progress of economic integration under the influence of these two factors for five periods. It concentrates on the structural adaptations of the economy and the institutional arrangements that accompanied integration. The late Middle Ages can be characterised as a period during which the pan-European ideas of Empire and Papacy were fading more and more, giving way to a growing nationalism. The form in which integration was expressed varied over the years. International integration had always been a more or less factual process partly consolidated in bilateral agreements. Integration, which had come to a halt during the war, was gradually re-established during the 1945–1955 period. First, there was a move towards free trade.
