This book asks anew whether there really was European integration before 1914. By focussing on quantitative (economic indicators) and qualitative data (the international regulation of patents, communication networks, social policy and plant protection), the authors re-evaluate European integration of the time and address the politics of seemingly apolitical cooperation. The authors show that European integration was multifaceted and cooperation less the result of intent, than of incentives. National polities and international regimes co-shaped each other. The result is a book that achieves two things: offer stand-alone chapters that shed light on specific developments and – these read altogether – develop a bigger picture. It will be of interest to researchers and students of economic history, as well as those interested in the history of internationalism and globalisation.

This book asks anew whether there really was European integration before 1914. By focussing on quantitative (economic indicators) and qualitative data (the international regulation of patents, communication networks, social policy and plant protection), the authors re-evaluate European integration of the time and address the politics of seemingly apolitical cooperation. The authors show that European integration was multifaceted and cooperation less the result of intent, than of incentives. National polities and international regimes co-shaped each other. The result is a book that achieves two things: offer stand-alone chapters that shed light on specific developments and - these read altogether - develop a bigger picture. It will be of interest to researchers and students of economic history, as well as those interested in the history of internationalism and globalisation. Yaman Kouli is a researcher at the Heinrich-Heine-University in Düsseldorf. He has held numerous other positions, including as research assistant at the Chemnitz University of Technology and an A.SK-fellow at the Berlin Social Science Centre. From 2018 to 2020, he was Feodor-Lynen fellow and received a scholarship from the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation. His fields of expertise are Poland's economic history during the 20th century, the knowledge-based economy and European integration. Léonard Laborie has been a research fellow at the CNRS, UMR Sirice in Paris since 2010. He received his PhD in contemporary history from Sorbonne University. His research deals with the interactions between science, technology and diplomacy in the making of Europe since the 1850s. He was chairman of the Tensions of Europe Research Network on History, Technology and Europe from 2019 to 2022.

Focusing on the great population movement of British emigrants before 1914, this book provides a perspective on the relationship between empire and globalisation. It shows how distinct structures of economic opportunity developed around the people who settled across a wider British World through the co-ethnic networks they created. Yet these networks could also limit and distort economic growth. The powerful appeal of ethnic identification often made trade and investment with racial 'outsiders' less appealing, thereby skewing economic activities toward communities perceived to be 'British'. By highlighting the importance of these networks to migration, finance and trade, this book contributes to debates about globalisation in the past and present. It reveals how the networks upon which the era of modern globalisation was built quickly turned in on themselves after 1918, converting racial, ethnic and class tensions into protectionism, nationalism and xenophobia. Avoiding such an outcome is a challenge faced today.

Exploring the historical roots of integration, they trace contemporary integration efforts back to nineteenth-century social action in response to capitalist development. As today, it was a time when internationalism - both that of workers and capitalists - sustained international cooperation and attempted to define a social dimension to economic development and to set universal standards for welfare. The reemergence of an integrated Europe as an alternative to the system of states produced by the settlements of 1918 and 1945 has provided a new opening for internationalism.

Discusses worldwide economic integration between 1850 and 1930, challenging the popular description of the period after 1918 as one of deglobalisation.

Deze studie ontwikkelt een geheel nieuwe benadering van het vraagstuk: Hoe wordt migratie- en integratiebeleid in tien Europese landen gemaakt? Wie is daarbij betrokken? Welke invloed hebben wetenschappers en maatschappelijke partners op de vorming en uitvoering van beleid? De auteurs concluderen dat beleid begrepen moet worden als resultaat van nationale historische verhoudingen en opvattingen binnen nationale contexten enerzijds, en anderzijds ontstaan is onder invloed van wereldwijde en supra-nationale invloeden.