From Corn Laws to Imperial Preferences to joining the EEC, Britain’s current trade policy conundrum has echoes from the past. Economic historian Kevin O’Rourke (NYU Abu Dhabi) joins to explain how the economic tradeoffs Britain confronted over the last two hundred years continue to resonate in the trade policy decisions it must make today.

Read more…

• Kevin O’Rourke. 2019. A Short History of Brexit. Pelican Books.
• Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey. 2006. From the Corn Laws to Free Trade: Interests, Ideas, and Institutions in Historical Perspective. MIT Press.
• Soumaya Keynes. 2020. Farmers, greens and animal-lovers make doing trade deals difficult. The Economist, 15 October.