Mason Crest 2016 catalog

UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL T RAD E & COMME RC E

The world has become a global marketplace. Large volumes of goods, services, ideas, money, and technology are transported throughout the world, affecting the lives of billions of people in the process. The new series UNDERSTANDING GLOBAL TRADE & COMMERCE will provide readers with a greater understanding of international trade and how the global marketplace functions. Titles in this series will help students gain a deeper understanding of international issues and concerns related to the global economy. THESE INTERESTING AND FACTUAL VOLUMES ARE SUPPLEMENTED WITH NUMEROUS COLOR PHOTOGRAPHS AND MAPS, AS WELL AS A CHRONOLOGY, GLOSSARY OF TERMS, A GUIDE TO ADDITIONAL RESOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION, TEXT-DEPENDENT QUESTIONS AND REPORT IDEAS, AND AN INDEX.

Actual Text Size firms an idea developed by tw and Paul Samuelson came up explain why some countries According to the theorem, n support trad restrictions from the New World. As a re and began to work in city fac The way the world marke

US ranchers sent meat to Europe. A decade later, refrigerated ships traveled to Europe from as far away as Brazil and Australia. The abil- ity to keep food cool connected the meat industries in these countries to large European populations. The invention of the telegraph brought markets even closer together. A telegraph message crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in 1858. Before that, producers and purchasers in America and Europe had to wait ten days to learn the prices of goods on the other side of the Atlantic. Ten days was the length of an Atlantic crossing by steamship. By contrast, the telegraph carried market information in a matter of seconds. Theexplosionof transportationand communication technology in thenineteenth centurydrovedownprices.The lowerprices increased consumer demand as more people could afford to buy small luxuries. Overseas tradehelped fuel the IndustrialRevolutionby expanding the consumer market. Free Trade’s Winners and Losers Open markets led to better products and lower prices around the world. But not everyone benefited from global competition. European farmers struggled when food prices fell due to cheap crops coming from the New World. As a result, many farmers left the countryside and began to work in city factories. The way the world market worked in the nineteenth century con- firms an idea developed by two economists in 1941. Wolfgang Stolper and Paul Samuelson came up with the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem to explain why some countries support free trade and some do not. According to the theorem, nations with scarce land, labor, or funds support trade restrictions that protect their limited resources.

Nineteenth-century improvements in transportation, such as railroads and steamships, made it easier tomove trade goods to differentmarkets.

tracks crisscrossed continents. The US transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. Workers finished the Canadian-Pacific transconti- nental railroad in 1885. These lines connected inland production facilities with coastal ports. Advancements in inland water travel also connected producers to markets.TheErieCanal, completed in1825, linked theUSagricultur- al center—the Midwest—to New York and the Atlantic Ocean. Likewise, the Suez Canal, finished in 1869 in Egypt, bridged the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. This 102-mile (164-km) canal eliminated the route around Africa to reach the Indian Ocean. Before the canal, steamships could not travel from Europe to Asia because the African route required more coal than the ships could carry. The Suez Canal marked the replacement of sailing ships with steamships in commercial transportation. Another innovation added fresh food to the world market. Refrigeration by ice blocks was first developed in the 1830s. By 1870

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Global Trade in the Modern World

The First Age of Globalization 25

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