Political Economy of Anglo-French Trade, 1689-1899 : Agricultural Trade Policies, Alcohol Taxes, and War
Britain contrary to received wisdom was not a free trader for most of the 1800s and, despite repeal of the Corn Laws, continued to have higher tariffs than the French until the last quarter of the century. War with Louis fourteenth from 1689 led to...
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2017
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/528211468156266734/Political-economy-of-Anglo-French-trade-1689-1899-agricultural-trade-policies-alcohol-taxes-and-war http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28162 |
| Summary: | Britain contrary to received wisdom was
not a free trader for most of the 1800s and, despite repeal
of the Corn Laws, continued to have higher tariffs than the
French until the last quarter of the century. War with Louis
fourteenth from 1689 led to the end of all trade between
Britain and France for a quarter of a century. The creation
of powerful protected interests both at home and abroad led
to the imposition of prohibitively high tariffs on French
imports notably on wine and spirits, when trade with France
resumed in 1714. Protection of domestic interests from
import competition allowed the state to raise domestic
excises which provided increased government revenues despite
almost no increases in the taxes on land and income in
Britain. The state ensured compliance not simply through the
threat of lower tariffs on foreign substitutes but also
through the encouragement of a trend towards monopoly
production in brewing and restricted retail sales of beer.
This history is analyzed in terms of its effects on British
fiscal and commercial policy from the early 1700s to the end
of the nineteenth century. The result is a fuller, albeit
revisionist account of the rise of the modern state that
calls into question a variety of theses in economics and
political science that draw on the naive view of a liberal
Britain unilaterally moving to free trade in the nineteenth century. |
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