Small and Medium Powers in Global History: Trade, Conflicts, and Neutrality from the 18th to the 20th Centuries

251 Pages·2018·3.147 MB·English

by  Jari Eloranta, Eric Golson, Peter Hedburg, Maria Cristina Moreira

Small and Medium Powers in
Global History
This volume brings together a leading group of scholars to offer a new
perspective on the history of conflicts and trade, focusing on the role of
small and medium, or “weak”, and often neutral states. Existing historio­
graphy has often downplayed the importance of such states in world trade,
during armed conflicts, and as important agents in the expanding trade and
global connections of the last 250 years. The country studies demonstrate
that these states played a much bigger role in world and bilateral trade
than has previously been assumed, and that this role was augmented by the
emergence of truly global conflicts and total war.
In addition to careful country or comparative studies, this book provides
new data on trade and shipping during wars and examines the impact of this
trade on the individual states’ economies. It spans the period from the late 18th
century to the First and Second World Wars and the Cold War of the 20th
century, a crucial period of change in the concept and practice of neutrality and
trade, as well as periods of transition in the nature and technology of warfare.
This book will be of great interest to scholars of economic history, com­
parative history, international relations, and political science.
Jari Eloranta is Professor of Economic History at the University of Helsinki,
Finland.
Eric Golson is a Senior Teaching Fellow in the School of Economics at
the University of Surrey, UK, and also teaches at the School of Oriental and
African Studies (SOAS), London, UK.
Peter Hedberg is Associate Professor of Economic History at Uppsala
University, Sweden.
Maria Cristina Moreira is an Assistant Professor of Economics at the
University of Minho, Portugal.
Perspectives in Economic and Social History
Series Editors: Andrew August and Jari Eloranta
47 Merchants and Trade Networks in the Atlantic and the
Mediterranean, 1550–1800
Connectors of Commercial Maritime Systems
Edited by Manuel Herrero Sánchez and Klemens Kaps
48 Property Rights in Land
Issues in Social, Economic and Global History
Edited by Rosa Congost, Jorge Gelman and Rui Santos
49 Working-Class Community in the Age of Affluence
Stefan Ramsden
50 Culture, Philanthropy and the Poor in Late-Victorian London
Geoffrey A. C. Ginn
51 The Economic and Business History of Occupied Japan
New Perspectives
Edited by Thomas French
52 An Urban History of The Plague
Socio­Economic, Political and Medical Impacts in a Scottish Community,
1500–1650
Karen Jillings
53 Mercantilism, Account Keeping and the Periphery-Core
Relationship
Edited by Cheryl Susan McWatters
54 Small and Medium Powers in Global History
Trade, Conflicts, and Neutrality from the 18th to the 20th Centuries
Edited by Jari Eloranta, Eric Golson, Peter Hedberg, and Maria Cristina Moreira
For more information about this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/
PESH
Small and Medium Powers
in Global History
Trade, Conflicts, and Neutrality from
the 18th to the 20th Centuries
Edited by Jari Eloranta, Eric
Golson, Peter Hedberg, and
Maria Cristina Moreira
First published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
 2019 selection and editorial matter, Jari Eloranta, Eric Golson,
Peter Hedberg, and Maria Cristina Moreira; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of Jari Eloranta, Eric Golson, Peter Hedberg, and Maria
Cristina Moreira to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been
asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978­1­138­74454­7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978­1­315­18094­6 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Swales & Willis Ltd, Exeter, Devon, UK
Contents
List of contributors vii
Foreword ix
PATRICK KARL O’BRIEN
1 Introduction 1
JARI ELORANTA, PETER HEDBERG, MARIA CRISTINA MOREIRA,
AND ERIC GOLSON
PART I
Interplay of trade and conflicts in the long run 27
2 Trade and the new republic: American trade during
the Napoleonic Wars, 1783–1830 29
JEREMY LAND, JARI ELORANTA, AND MARIA CRISTINA MOREIRA
3 The United States and the Mediterranean during the
French Wars (1793–1815) 52
SILVIA MARZAGALLI
4 Commercial relations between Portugal and Russia:
neutrality, trade, and finance (1770–1850) 73
MARIA CRISTINA MOREIRA, RITA MARTINS DE SOUSA, AND
WERNER SCHELTJENS
5 Taxation in Brazil in the Napoleonic Wars: neutrality,
economy and the outcomes of a royal court in transit 95
RODRIGO DA COSTA DOMINGUEZ AND ANGELO ALVES CARRARA
6 Wartime trade and tariffs in Sweden from the
Napoleonic Wars to World War I 116
PETER HEDBERG AND HENRIC HÄGGQVIST
vi Contents
PART II
Trade and neutrality in conflicts 139
7 Small states in harm’s way: neutrality in war 141
ERIC GOLSON
8 The Atlantic orientation: Norway and the western
blockade of Germany, 1914–1918 155
KNUT OLA NAASTAD STRØM
9 What was the impact of World War I on Swedish
economic and business performance? A case study
of the ball bearings manufacturer SKF 173
ERIC GOLSON AND JASON LENNARD
10 The macroeconomic effects of neutrality: evidence
from the Nordic countries during the wars 196
JASON LENNARD AND ERIC GOLSON
11 No room for neutrality? The uncommitted European
nations and the economic Cold War in the 1950s 213
NIKLAS JENSEN­ERIKSEN
12 Bicycles in rush hour: concluding neutrality and war 231
TOSHIAKI TAMAKI AND JARI OJALA
Index 237
Contributors
Angelo Alves Carrara (Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil), PhD,
adjunct professor, specializes in the economic history of Brazil.
Rita Martins de Sousa (ISEG, University of Lisbon, Portugal), PhD, assistant
professor, specializes in Portuguese monetary history.
Rodrigo da Costa Dominguez (University of Minho and University of
Porto, Portugal), PhD, postdoctoral scholar, specializes in Portuguese trade
relations and history.
Jari Eloranta (University of Helsinki, Finland), PhD, professor of economic
history, specializes in the history of government role in the economy and
Nordic economic history.
Eric Golson (University of Surrey, UK), PhD, lecturer, specializes in the
history of neutrality and economics of warfare.
Henric Häggqvist (University of Uppsala, Sweden), PhD, postdoctoral
scholar, specializes in the history of tariffs in Sweden and the history of the
Swedish welfare state.
Peter Hedberg (University of Uppsala, Sweden), PhD, associate professor,
specializes in the history of Swedish trade and the impact of wars.
Niklas Jensen-Eriksen (University of Helsinki, Finland), PhD, professor of
business history, specializes in the history of Cold War business enterprises
and trade.
Jeremy Land (Georgia State University, USA), PhD candidate, specializes in
the history of early American trade.
Jason Lennard (Lund University, Sweden), PhD, researcher, specializes in
economic policy, financial crises and national accounting in the long run.
Silvia Marzagalli (Université Côte d’Azur, Centre de la Méditerranée
Moderne et Contemporaine, France), PhD, professor of modern history,
specializes in the history of French and Mediterranean trade.
viii Contributors
Maria Cristina Moreira (University of Minho, Portugal), PhD, assistant
professor of economics, specializes in the history of Portuguese trade and
impacts of the wars.
Patrick Karl O’Brien (University of London, UK), PhD, professor of eco­
nomic history, one of the foremost experts in the history of global trade and
the British economy in the world.
Jari Ojala (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), PhD, professor of comparative
business history, specializes in early modern economy, maritime history and
comparative business practices.
Werner Scheltjens (University of Leipzig, Germany), PhD, assistant professor,
specializes in the history of early modern trade and the Soundtoll accounts.
Knut Ola Naastad Strøm (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), doctoral
student, specializes in the history of the Nordic countries and impacts of
conflicts.
Toshiaki Tamaki (Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan), PhD, professor of
economics, specializes in the history of the North European trade and
economic relations.
Foreword
Patrick Karl O’Brien
Two meta themes and questions of strong significance form the chapters of
this book. They are of significant interest to historians, economists, and other
social scientists endeavouring to achieve rigorous and informed analyses of the
workings of the international economy and international economic relations.
The chapters focus on small states and their economies that opted to remain
neutral during the numerous and more or less protracted and serious interludes
of warfare that have punctuated the long­term development of the interna­
tional economy. Not only do they deal with the costs and benefits of neutral­
ity in the premodern age of mercantilism, but they also augment our limited
knowledge of such economies, including Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Ireland,
Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, and the young American republic, whose com­
mercial relations with countries beyond their frontiers, although small, nev­
ertheless contributed in several significant ways to a global economy for an
exchange of commodities, the migration of labour, movements of capital and
diffusion of knowledge by land across the frontiers of countries and by way of
oceans, seas, and waterways of an expanding and integrating world economy.
In some degree, particularly if the commodity or service was especially
desirable and/or was widely demanded and in inelastic demand and embodied
externalities, exports from small economies could play a disproportionate part
in increasing the volume of world trade. Nevertheless, as several of these chap­
ters show, their more significant role was to maintain bilateral and multilateral
connections for international commerce and diplomacy during the frequent
geopolitical conflicts that occurred during the era of mercantilism and in the
20th century’s two world wars and Cold Wars.
During such times of military and naval conflict, which included blockades
and attacks on trade, the status of neutrality was expedient for weak states to
claim, but difficult to maintain. Despite the endeavours of international lawyers
to define neutrality, the law was not enforceable and its status depended upon
the interests of powerful belligerents and the greed of privateers and naval com­
manders seeking prizes from predation upon “neutral” ships and their cargoes.
These chapters ask in what ways and to what degree neutrality in par­
ticular pre­and modern wars augmented the long run growth of powers that
managed to maintain that enviable and envied status. The historical evidence