Free Trade And Free Ports In The Mediterranean

How did free trade emerge in early-modern times? How did the Mediterranean as a specific region – with its own historical characteristics – produce a culture in which the free port appeared? What was the relation between the type of free trade created in early-modern Italy and the development of global trade and commercial competition between states for hegemony in the eighteenth century? And how did the position of the free port, originally a Mediterranean ‘invention’, develop over the course of time? The contributions to this volume address these questions and explain the institutional genealogy of the free port. Free Trade and Free Ports in the Mediterranean analyses the atypical history and conditions of the Mediterranean region in contradistinction with other regions as an explanation for how and why free ports arose there. This volume engages with the diffusion of free ports from a Mediterranean to a global phenomenon, whilst staying focused on how this diffusion was experienced in the Mediterranean itself. The contributions to this volume bring together the traditional issues of religious openness and tolerance in physically separated areas and the role of consuls and governors, via fiscal techniques, architectural and administrative aspects, with questions about geopolitical balance and primacy. The book will be of interest to scholars in a wide range of historical sub-disciplines (early modern, Mediterranean, global economic, political, and institutional, just to mention a few) and to students wishing to perfect their knowledge of the Mediterranean and its global interconnections, and of the origins of free trade.

In early modern Europe, free ports were places where merchants of any nation, religion, or ethnicity could trade on equal terms; and where there were no import and export taxes. This work shows how free trade emerged from the interstices of European commercial institutions by examining the history of the free port of Livorno

In early modern Europe, free ports were places where merchants of any nation, religion, or ethnicity could trade on equal terms; and where there were no import and export taxes. This work shows how free trade emerged from the interstices of European commercial institutions by examining the history of the free port of Livorno

In the twilight of the Renaissance, the grand duke of Tuscany-a scion of the fabled Medici family of bankers-invited foreign merchants, artisans, and ship captains to settle in his port city of Livorno. The town quickly became one of the most bustling port cities in the Mediterranean, presenting a rich tableau of officials, merchants, mariners, and slaves. Nobody could have predicted in 1600 that their activities would contribute a chapter in the history of free trade. Yet by the late seventeenth century, the grand duke's invitation had evolved into a general program of hospitality towards foreign visitors, the liberal treatment of goods, and a model for the elimination of customs duties. Livorno was the earliest and most successful example of a free port in Europe. The story of Livorno shows the seeds of liberalism emerging, not from the studies of philosophers such as Adam Smith, but out of the nexus between commerce, politics, and identity in the early modern Mediterranean.

Looks at the provisions and potential for the Partnership, which formally established in November 1995 as a series of bilateral free trade agreements between the European Union and individual countries of on the southern shore of the Mediterranean. Among the perspectives are who will benefit, the global Euro-Mediterranean partnership, regionalism and the Mediterranean, social feasibility and the costs of the free trade zone, lessons from southeast Asia, and security implications. The 17 articles first appeared in the Journal of North African Studies 3/2 (summer 1998). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This book provides a comprehensive review of the evolution and performance of SEZs from a historical and comparative perspective by tracing the experiences of SEZs in 23 developing countries, including Korea, Taiwan, and China. Using a framework that integrates the basic tenets of the industrial cluster approach with existing theories, it proposes a set of evaluation criteria for SEZs. Analysing quantitative data provided by the Ministry of Commerce and qualitative evidence based on field surveys conducted during 2004–9, the book assesses the economic contribution in the pre- and post-SEZ Act periods in India. Exploring the impact of SEZs on employment, trade, foreign exchange earnings, government revenue, and technology transfers, it also examines evidence of social effects vis-à-vis land acquisition, human development, regional inequities, and environmental protection. Discussing the impact of internal dynamics and external forces on future prospects of SEZs, it offers constructive suggestions to make policy investor-friendly and successful.

Extrastatecraft is the operating system of the modern world: the skyline of Dubai, the subterranean pipes and cables sustaining urban life, free-trade zones, the standardized dimensions of credit cards, and hyper-consumerist shopping malls. It is all this and more. Infrastructure sets the invisible rules that govern the spaces of our everyday lives, making the city the key site of power and resistance in the twenty-first century. Keller Easterling reveals the nexus of emerging governmental and corporate forces buried within the concrete and fiber-optics of our modern habitat. Extrastatecraft will change how we think about cities—and, perhaps, how we live in them.