Editing Protectionism (section)

==== Continental Europe ====
Europe became increasingly protectionist during the eighteenth century.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=http://press.princeton.edu/titles/8493.html|title=Power and Plenty|date= 2009|publisher=Princeton University Press|access-date=16 October 2017|isbn=978-0-691-14327-9|last1=Findlay|first1=Ronald|last2=O'Rourke|first2=Kevin H.}}</ref> Economic historians Findlay and O'Rourke write that in "the immediate aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars, European trade policies were almost universally protectionist", with the exceptions being smaller countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark.<ref name=":3" />

Europe increasingly liberalized its trade during the 19th century.<ref name=":1" /> Countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark, Portugal and Switzerland, and arguably Sweden and Belgium, had fully moved towards free trade prior to 1860.<ref name=":1" /> Economic historians see the repeal of the [[Corn Laws]] in 1846 as the decisive shift toward free trade in Britain.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite book| chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/the-cambridge-economic-history-of-modern-britain/trade-discovery-mercantilism-and-technology/A0D309440D728FC14CC299FACB7A5876 | chapter=7 – Trade: discovery, mercantilism and technology | title=The Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain | publisher=Cambridge University | language=en | access-date=27 June 2017 | doi=10.1017/CHOL9780521820363.008 | isbn=978-1-139-05385-3 | year=2004 | last1=Harley | first1=C. Knick | pages=175–203 }}</ref> A 1990 study by the Harvard economic historian [[Jeffrey Williamson]] showed that the Corn Laws (which imposed restrictions and [[Trade barrier|tariffs]] on imported [[grain]]) substantially increased the cost of living for British workers, and hampered the British manufacturing sector by reducing the disposable incomes that British workers could have spent on manufactured goods.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Williamson|first=Jeffrey G|author-link = Jeffrey G. Williamson|date=1 April 1990|title=The impact of the Corn Laws just prior to repeal|journal=Explorations in Economic History|volume=27|issue=2|pages=123–156|doi=10.1016/0014-4983(90)90007-L}}</ref> The shift towards liberalization in Britain occurred in part due to "the influence of economists like David Ricardo", but also due to "the growing power of urban interests".<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal| first1=Ronald | last1=Findlay| last2=O'Rourke | first2=Kevin H. |date=1 January 2003| title=Commodity Market Integration, 1500–2000 | url=https://www.nber.org/chapters/c9585 |journal=NBER| pages=13–64}}</ref>

Findlay and O'Rourke characterize 1860 [[Cobden–Chevalier Treaty|Cobden Chevalier treaty]] between France and the United Kingdom as "a decisive shift toward European free trade."<ref name=":1" /> This treaty was followed by numerous free trade agreements: "France and Belgium signed a treaty in 1861; a Franco-Prussian treaty was signed in 1862; Italy entered the "network of Cobden-Chevalier treaties" in 1863 (Bairoch 1989, 40); Switzerland in 1864; Sweden, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands, and the Hanseatic towns in 1865; and Austria in 1866. By 1877, less than two decades after the Cobden Chevalier treaty and three decades after British Repeal, Germany "had virtually become a free trade country" (Bairoch, 41). Average duties on manufactured products had declined to 9–12% on the Continent, a far cry from the 50% British tariffs, and numerous prohibitions elsewhere, of the immediate post-Waterloo era (Bairoch, table 3, p.&nbsp;6, and table 5, p.&nbsp;42)."<ref name=":1" />

Some European powers did not liberalize during the 19th century, such as the Russian Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire which remained highly protectionist. The [[Ottoman Empire]] also became increasingly protectionist.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Daudin|first1=Guillaume|last2=O’Rourke|first2=Kevin H.|last3=Escosura|first3=Leandro Prados de la|date=2008|title=Trade and Empire, 1700–1870|journal=Documents de Travail de l'Ofce |url=https://ideas.repec.org/p/fce/doctra/0824.html}}</ref> In the Ottoman Empire's case, however, it previously had [[Economic liberalism|liberal]] [[free trade]] policies during the 18th to early 19th centuries, which [[British prime minister]] [[Benjamin Disraeli]] cited as "an instance of the injury done by unrestrained competition" in the 1846 [[Corn Laws]] debate, arguing that it destroyed what had been "some of the finest manufacturers of the world" in 1812.<ref name="Paradoxes"/>

The countries of Western Europe began to steadily liberalize their economies after World War II and the protectionism of the interwar period,<ref name=":3" /> but [[John Tsang]], then [[Hong Kong]]'s [[Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology]] and chair of the [[World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2005|Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization]], MC6, commented in 2005 that the EU spent around €70 billion per year on "trade-distorting support".<ref>Tsang, J., "Towards a Brighter Future in Trade and World Development", ''Hong Kong Industrialist'', 2005/12, p. 28</ref>