A framing case study discusses European Union trade rules that ban the sale of all products made from seals. Then the chapter provides an overview of international trade law. The chapter discusses: (1) how states have historically promoted international law, including major concepts and the evolution of trade institutions; (2) major obligations under contemporary trade law, including rules for market access and treatment standards; and (3) major exceptions under trade law that allow states to restrict trade to prevent unfair trade, safeguard economies from unexpected shocks, protect competing values (like human health and the environment), and preserve national security.

This chapter describes the changes in beliefs about human rights that occurred in the 1970s and the new forms of enforcement that this encouraged and enabled. This included the use of economic pressure to enforce human rights. Beginning at this time, enforcing human rights through international interference came to be understood as not just permissible, but as the duty of the international community. In the context of these changing beliefs, Western governments began to use economic pressure to enforce human rights in the Global South. However, as this chapter demonstrates, these governments systematically enforced human rights in regions where enforcement was relatively cheap and easy. They did so in Latin America and Africa, while at the same time subsuming human rights to other strategic priorities in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. These enforcement policies clashed with understandings of self-determination held by actors throughout the Global South, and they were regarded as an illegitimate imposition. However, in the context of changing beliefs about human rights, appealing to the norm of non-interference was no longer effective at deterring Western interference.

Part II, ‘The Treasury’, begins in Westminster Abbey, where imported silks and jewels were highly visible, considering the difference between medieval practices of display and contemporary museum practice. Chapter 3 unravels the meanings of Arabic and Pseudo-Arabic textiles in medieval England, as devotional and resistant texts. The category of ‘Syriana’ is most clearly advertised in the case of these fabrics, with Italian weavers in Lucca explicitly recorded as the producers of ‘soriani’. By the fourteenth century, high quality Italian ‘Damasks’ were effectively indistinguishable from original Syrian wares. I consider the significance of the known inauthenticity of ‘Syrian’ textiles. Imported silks were ostentatiously used to construct sacred spaces in England, as seen in the instructions left by William Wey in his will for the reconstruction of the Holy Sepulchre in Wiltshire. Arabic-inscribed fabrics were venerated as Holy Land relics. The ownership of silks was regulated through sumptuary legislation, indicating – as with the legal regulation of sweet wines – an anxiety around the category. At the same time, imitative silks knowingly fabricated their origins, destabilising the relic discourse through which these items were venerated. Imported Arabic and Pseudo-Arabic textiles inscribe the role of mobility across borders in the creation of culture.

This chapter traces the roots of racial capitalism in early modern England. It shows how ideologies of class and race were grounded in the logic of both nationalism and overseas trade and colonialism. It does so by tracing the evolution of the story of Dick Whittington, a fantasy about a poor boy that acquired the status of a fairy tale in English culture. This evolution illustrates how dreams of class mobility at home were shaped by the promises of international wealth; how these promises in turn molded the ideology of nationalism whereby the nobility and the mercantile classes came together despite the tensions between them; how existing geographic differences were rewritten to present European superiority; and finally, how peoples from different parts of the world were represented as both necessary and dangerous to the advancement of the European self.

This chapter examines the shift from almost total estrangement in the early 1920s to broad enmeshment in cultural, economic, and finally diplomatic exchanges in the early 1930s. While acknowledging the importance of converging economic and strategic interests, the chapter argues that images and ideas were also significant, particularly in defining the identities and trajectories of the two countries. It illuminates the divergence between American anticommunists who loathed the atheist Soviet dictatorship and the growing number of intellectuals, journalists, African Americans, and others who became fascinated by the Soviet experiment in social and economic transformation. It also analyzes the ambivalence of Soviet writers, cartoonists, and political leaders about the United States, which they harshly criticized for its imperialism, racism, and economic exploitation, but also admired for its energy, productivity, and advanced technology. The chapter closes with a discussion of how President Franklin Roosevelt disregarded a terrible famine in Ukraine and protests by Ukrainian Americans as he negotiated for the establishment of diplomatic relations.

Food was the most important resource during the First World War. Without it, the massive armies on the Eastern and the Western Fronts, in Africa and in Asia could not have been assembled, let alone made to fight. And at the 'home front', which during the First World War came to be seen as integral to the war effort, food was crucial in maintaining production and morale. Any analysis of why and how the First World War was fought and won is incomplete without a consideration of how states, armies, communities, and individuals fought over the globe's supplies of grains, livestock, fertilizers, feeding stocks, and agricultural labour. This chapter will provide an analysis of the impact of this first global war on the worldwide food distribution system that had evolved since the Industrial Revolution. Its aim is to provide both an introduction to the reader on the impact of the First World War on food, and vice versa, and to provide essential contexts for both the chapters that follow and the data on changes in food supply and consumption, and its manifold effects on state, social structures, and health.

This chapter explores the economic recovery of Europe following the fall of the Roman Empire, often referred to as the Dark Ages. It highlights the role of technological innovation and the division of labour in revitalizing European economies from the ninth to the fifteenth centuries, building on insights from the work of Adam Smith. The re-establishment of long-distance trade routes and the revival of urban centres were critical factors in this recovery. The chapter also explores the restoration of monetary systems and the development of a more complex economy characterized by the growth of cities and increased production. By focusing on how Europe transitioned from a period of obscurity to one of gradual economic resurgence, the chapter underscores the importance of trade, technology and labour specialization in driving recovery and growth.

This chapter traces the early economic history of Europe, focusing on the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to agricultural civilizations. It examines the emergence of cities, the development of trade and the influence of geography on European economic integration. The chapter explores how early agricultural innovations, such as the domestication of crops and animals, laid the foundation for the rise of European civilizations, particularly in Greece and Rome. It also discusses the geo-economic continuity of Europe, showing how trade fostered cultural and political integration despite frequent conflicts. Through an analysis of early European economies, the chapter highlights the role of agriculture and trade as key forces in shaping the region’s development.

This chapter examines the historical evolution of trade and globalization in Europe, focusing on the forces that have shaped trade patterns over time. It explores the impact of technological advancements, such as improvements in transportation and communication, as well as the influence of political decisions on trade policy, including cycles of protectionism and free trade. The chapter also discusses the economic benefits and challenges of globalization, analysing how trade has contributed to economic growth while also creating winners and losers within and between countries. The chapter argues that while globalization has generally increased economic efficiency, its effects have been unevenly distributed.

Sea power, classically defined as a strategy to control communications, was an essential asset for the creation of European maritime empires, enabling them to secure seaborne trade, open new markets, and acquire territory. It has often been conflated with seapower, a concept developed by the ancient Athenians to distinguish states like their own, whose economy, culture, and identity were enmeshed in the maritime sphere, from continental military powers like Sparta and Persia. In this period Britain, the only seapower Great Power, created an extensive maritime empire outside Europe, one combining colonies of settlement, like Australia, with those of occupation, and informal imperialism based on economic power. While many Continental European powers created maritime empires after 1815, they did so in the knowledge that their possessions would be exposed to British naval power in the event of war, and tended to focus on land and security rather than commerce.

This chapter asks: how did notions and practices of individual equality arise out of the growing marketisation and monetarisation of economic production, exchange and consumption?