Studies in Economic Nationalism

PREFACE

This short and unpretentious book is a by-product of the comprehensive — and as yet unfinished — inquiry into economic nationalism in the twentieh century which I have intermittently conducted for many years. The chapters of which it is composed were written in the first place in order to clarify my own ideas; and they have also served me for some of the lectures delivered at the Graduate Institute of International Studies during the academic year 1958-59.

My reason for deciding to publish what is assuredly an incomplete treatment of a most important subject, is that apparently no volume of this particular scope exists today. I have also been prompted by the encouragements given me by my friend, Professor Jacques Freymond, Director of the Graduate Institute, and by his hospitable offer to include the book in the series of the Institute’s publications. Thus provided with an opportunity to render at this most appropriate place my heartfelt homage to the memory of two great and ever-regretted friends and teachers, Professors William E. Rappard and Paul Mantoux, who founded the Institute thirty-two years ago, I owe to their eminent successor a debt of gratitude very large indeed.

The content of this book has been the subject of conversations and discussions with scholars of many countries, to all of whom my warm thanks are here expressed. As it is a highly controversial study, however, no names are mentioned and I alone bear the responsibility for what it contains.

To my wife go my affectionate thanks for her encouragement and a moral support that never falters.

As I write this preface on the day on which the University of Geneva is four hundred years old, I wish to pay my grateful tribute to my famous and venerable Alma Mater, to which I owe both my academic training and my first teaching experience and with which I have been again associated, albeit somewhat indirectly, over the past few years.

Four hundred years: what a span of experience this covers in the history of economic nationalism! When Calvin’s Academy was founded, mercantilism was in its youth. It grew, flourished, declined, and fell; then came the age of liberalism and free trade and the great expansion of international commerce and economic development. World War I destroyed the liberal world trading system and there followed the ill-fated efforts to rebuild it in the twenties. The Great Depression of the thirties ushered in the most virulent forms of economic nationalism the world has ever known. As these pages go to press, liberalism and internationalism are triumphantly returning in Western Europe, the struggle against protectionism in the United States is rife; but in most of the underdeveloped countries economic nationalism prevails, as it does, of course, in the totalitarian countries of the communist bloc.

The balance of this century will be of vital importance for the future of international co-operation, which, to a large extent, will depend upon the fate of economic nationalism. It is my hope that this slender volume may help better to understand the issues involved and the stakes which are so high in terms of individual happiness and of peace and welfare for all.

M.A.H.

Geneva, June 5, 1959.