Theoretical Approaches

IN 1815, British economic foreign policy was still largely dominated by ideas which had been inherited from the nation’s pre-industrial past and which, following Adam Smith, historians and economists have labelled `mercantilist’. Given the relatively slow growth of agriculture in the early modern period, the mercantilists looked to trade as one of the few means of increasing wealth and power rapidly. Agricultural produce was difficult to export and emphasis was placed on the need for the export of manufactures, the control of luxury trades and dominance of the carrying trade. International commerce was slow to expand and this explains the interest of nations in trade diversion and in colonial possessions with their obvious implications for international conflict.