Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.

I'm your host Russ Roberts of George Mason University and Stanford University's Hoover

Institution.

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and find links to other information related to today's conversation.

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My guest today is my colleague here at the economics department at George Mason University.

John Nye.

He holds the Bastian Chair in the University's Mercatus Center, and is the author of

War, Wine, and Taxes, the Political Economy of Anglo-French Trade, 1689-1900.

John, welcome to Econ Talk.

Hi, Russ. Thanks for getting me here.

John, in your book, War, Wine, and Taxes, you have a very different take on the history

of trade policy in Britain and France from the traditional one.

So I want to talk about that traditional view first.

How do most historians and economists look at the British and French economies of the 19th century

in their trade policy?

The traditional view is that beginning in the mid-1800s, the British began to move towards

free trade, and the decisive event was the repeal of the corn laws in the 1840s.

From that point on, it is said, Britain decisively moved to free trade and was the first and

for a while the unique free trader in Western Europe.

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