EH.N: CfP: Power, Institutions, and Global Markets: Mechanisms and Foundations of Word-Wide Economic Integration, ca. 1850-1930

[Christof Dejung]

CfP: Power, Institutions, and Global Markets: Mechanisms and 
Foundations of Word-Wide Economic Integration, ca. 1850-1930

Organisers: Dr. Christof Dejung / Dr. Niels P. Petersson
Date: 26th to 28th June 2008
Place: University of Konstanz, Germany
Deadline: 12th January 2008

AIM OF THE CONFERENCE

Literature on economic globalisation between 1850 and 1930 focuses 
primarily on the development of the volume of foreign trade between 
various nation states. Only rarely was this period examined from the 
perspective of economic actors below the nation state and by 
explicitly studying the role of the institutional framework which 
shaped - and was shaped - by their enterprises. Our conference will 
address these issues, bringing together scholars from economic and 
business history, global and world history, and history of law.

Recently, there has been a growing interest in how institutions - 
i.e., rules, norms, regulations and organisations - evolve, 
especially in settings beyond the nation state. In this context, 
intercontinental trade is a topic of particular relevance because it 
is associated with high transaction and information costs. These 
costs can only be overcome by transnational institutions or 
hierarchical organisations which make interaction predictable and 
contracts enforceable. At the same time, intercontinental trade has 
always been a highly politicised issue, which enables us to study the 
development of institutions and economic integration within their - 
political, cultural, social - context.

CONFERENCE TOPICS

The conference will bring together scholars from different parts of 
the world to investigate these topics for the period between 1850 and 
1930. World trade expanded quickly in the decades up to the First 
World War, both in quantity and in geographic reach. This expansion 
was supported by the expansion of the power of the industrialised 
countries in the age of imperialism and by the development of new 
rules and institutional forms that held together ever more complex 
trading networks. The war disrupted these networks and increased the 
importance of the state in economic affairs. In the post-war years, 
new public and private forums concerned with the improvement of 
economic institutions were installed, such as the League of Nations 
and the International Chamber of Commerce. Multinational companies 
were forced to build up new business networks by creating joint 
ventures with local partners. Institutionalisation did not, 
therefore, decline, but it changed its shape and purpose in the face 
of changing circumstances.

It is the aim of the conference to examine how and under what 
circumstances economic integration developed in two key periods in 
the history of globalisation, 1850-1914 and 1918-1930. Two questions 
will be addressed in particular:
- Which actors were most prominent in the creation of norms and 
institutions for global trade, what were their interests, coalitions, 
conflicts, and patters of action?
- To what extent should the First World War be seen as a watershed, 
dividing a period of rapid transnational integration from one of 
laborious, precarious, and ultimately failed reconstruction, and to 
what extent or in what areas can a continuity between the two periods 
be discerned?

Possible topics to be presented at the conference are:
- the integration of world trade from below through norms, rules, 
networks and institutions created by traders and their associations
- the development of a transnational mercantile culture
- standards and technical norms
- monopolies, trusts and cartels as forms of de facto-control over a market
- strategies and internal organisation of multinational firms
- the emergence of stock and goods exchanges and of globally 
operating banks and insurance companies and their effect on world 
trade
- early global governance: states, international organisations and 
the creation of internationally binding laws, rules and standards

PROPOSAL SUBMISSION AND TIMELINE

Please send an abstract of your proposed paper (max. 2 pages) and a 
brief CV to <christof.dejung at uni-konstanz.de> and 
<niels.petersson at uni-konstanz.de> by 12th January 2008. We are happy 
to answer any questions you might have before sending in a proposal. 
Successful applicants will be contacted before end of January 2008. 
To facilitate discussions at the conference, participants will be 
asked to submit draft papers for pre-circulation by 24th May 2008.

The conference language is English. A publication of selected 
conference papers is planned. We are very pleased to announce that 
Prof. Harold James (Princeton University) will be a key note speaker 
at the conference.

The conference is supported by the Centre of Excellence "Cultural 
Foundations of Integration" at the University of Konstanz. The 
conference organisers are working to secure additional sponsorship, 
but participants should be prepared to meet part of their travel and 
accommodation costs in case we are unsuccessful.