Editing Free trade (section)

=== Imperialism ===
Imperialism entails [[unequal exchange]] for the benefit of the [[mother country]], often at the expense of the colonies. The imperial trade practices of the [[British Empire|British]] and [[Spanish Empire]]s were contributing factors to the [[American Revolution]] and the [[Spanish American Wars of Independence]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Miller |first=John C. |title=Origins of the American Revolution |url=https://archive.org/details/originsofamerica00mill |url-access=registration |location= Boston |publisher= Little, Brown and company |date= 1943 |ol=6453380M }}, pp. 95–99</ref><ref>Lynch, ''Spanish American Revolutions'', 27–34. Rodríguez, ''Independence of Spanish America'', 14–18. Kinsbruner, ''Independence in Spanish America'', 14–17, 23.</ref>

[[Belgian Empire|Belgium]] also engaged in unequal exchange, most notoriously in the [[Congo Free State]] (CFS) under [[Leopold II of Belgium|King Leopold II]]. In direct violation of his promises of free trade within the CFS under the terms of the [[Berlin Conference|Berlin Treaty]], not only did the CFS become a commercial entity directly or indirectly trading within its dominion, but Leopold had also been slowly monopolizing a considerable amount of the ivory and rubber trade by imposing export duties on the resources traded by other merchants within the CFS.<ref>{{cite book |first=Adam |last=Hochschild |author-link=Adam Hochschild |title=King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa |title-link=King Leopold's Ghost |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-74329-160-3}}</ref>