272 A Positive Century (1815–1914)States sternly warned his fellow nationals that, while extending commercial
ties with foreign countries was a sound policy, they should have “as little po-
liti cal connection as possible” with foreign states. On this point, too, Bas-
tiat was characteristically outspoken. “Our code is this,” he declared: “ ‘Th e
least possible contact between governments, the most contact between peo-
ples.’ Why? Because contact between governments compromises peace,
whereas contact between peoples guarantees it.” With trade so highly
praised as the key to world peace, it is perhaps not surprising to fi nd Richard
Cobden, one of the most dedicated British economic liberals of the century,
grandly proclaiming that “free trade is the international law of God.”
If this liberal thesis was taken to its utmost logical extreme, it would even
lead to the outright obsolescence of the nation- state and the advent of a sin-
gle global market society. Liberal economics would work its wonders with
the greatest possible effi ciency if it were given the greatest possible theater in
which to operate— the entire world. Liberalism was therefore, in its fullest
form, a radically cosmopolitan system, seeing individuals the world over as
being integrated into one single grand global market mechanism. Th is point
was not missed by contemporary observers. Th e German sociologist Ferdi-
nand Tönnies was one who remarked upon it. “[T]he development of nation
states,” he suggested, could be looked upon as “only a temporary barrier to
an international market Society without national boundaries.”
It should be carefully noted that it was not envisaged that this pro cess
would result in a homogeneous world. On the contrary, the pro cesses of spe-
cialization and division of labor were central features of the liberal plan, so
that the various diff erent regions of the world would specialize in what they
were relatively best at producing— and then trade with other producers for
the satisfaction of the full range of their needs.
To an impressive extent, the liberal program was actually enacted in the
nineteenth century. Fittingly, this was not done through centralized action,
but instead by way of state- by- state adoption of free- trade- oriented policies.
Britain led the way in 1846, with the repeal of its “corn laws,” which were tar-
iff s on imported grain for the protection of domestic producers. On the wider
scene, the decisive step was the conclusion, in 1860, of the Cobden- Chevalier
Treat y (na med a ft er the two negotiators) between Britain and France, which
provided for massive reductions in tariff s between the two states. Most-
favored- nation clauses in treaties of amity and commerce helped to spread