From Mercantilism to Free Trade
A History of Fiscal Capacity Building
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12802490 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Didac Queralt (0000-0001-8523-3783, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 221-273 |
| Publication date | 2015-06-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Quarterly Journal of Political Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1554-0626 • E-ISSN: 1554-0634 |
| Publisher | Now Publishers (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1561/100.00014065 |
| OpenAlex | W2189268845 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 11 |
| References cited | 52 |
This paper presents a theory explaining how trade policy is contingent on the development of fiscal capacity. The paper investigates the conditions under which mercantilism is adopted as a substitute for taxation when fiscal capacity is weak, when mercantilist revenue is reinvested in developing fiscal capacity, and when economies endogenously abandon mercantilist practices and embrace free trade. If mercantilism is pursued when the stock of fiscal capacity is too low, the economy eventually falls into a protectionist trap, characterized by low income and low taxes. If mercantilism is adopted when the initial stock is large enough, then mercantilist revenue is invested in the expansion of the fiscal bureaucracy of the state. Eventually, the economy moves from the mercantilist-equilibrium to the free trade-equilibrium, where both income and taxes are high. The empirical implications of the model are examined against historical European data from 1820 to 1950
Economic history · Economics · International economics · International trade · Keynesian economics · Market economy · Mercantilism · Political science · Economic Theory and Policy · Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth · Global Financial Crisis and Policies
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From Territorial Consolidation to Bureaucratic Dominance
Imperial Rule, the Imposition of Bureaucratic Institutions, and their Long-Term Legacies
State capacity, economic freedom, and classical liberalism
Tax revenues and the fiscal cost of trade liberalization, 1792–2006
Intra-Elite Competition and Long-Run Fiscal Development
Justice for sale
Access to justice in revenue-seeking legal institutions
Protection Not for Sale, But for Tax Compliance
War, International Finance, and Fiscal Capacity in the Long Run
The Political Importance of Financial Performance
Violence and Social Orders
Globalization and History
Contours of the World Economy, 1–2030 AD
Politics and economics in weak and strong states
Warfare, fiscal capacity, and performance
States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control
State, Economy and Society in Western Europe, 1815–1975
Tariffs and income
The Laspeyres-Paradox
Latin American State Building in Comparative Perspective
Power and Plenty
The causes of corruption
The Structure of Protection and Growth in the Late Nineteenth Century
Of Rule and Revenue
International Competition in Iron and Steel, 1850–1913
Banking on the King
Fiscal Centralization, Limited Government, and Public Revenues in Europe, 1650–1913
License to till
Tax farming and the origins of state capacity in England and France
Lending to the Borrower from Hell
The International Diffusion of Electrical Power Technology, 1870–1920
Markets and States in Tropical Africa
Power versus Plenty as Objectives of Foreign Policy in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
The Fiscal Contract
The Contribution of Veto Players to Economic Reform
Protection Not for Sale, But for Tax Compliance
The Conscription of Wealth
Bad Loans to Good Friends
A Complete Data Set of Political Regimes, 1800–2007
Modeling Dynamics in Time-Series–Cross-Section Political Economy Data
Social Democracy Constrained
The Construction of State Extractive Capacity
Governing the Market
The Mining Industry and the State
From Shafts to Wires
The Origins of Endogenous Growth
Structural Dependence of the State on Capital
| Unique citing works | 11 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,22 |
| Citation span | 2017 - 2025 (9) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 11 |