288 A Positive Century (1815–1914)universal and common judge.” Once this rather ambitious goal has been
achieved, “[t]he law will come by itself as the new law of life of this body.”
As in the St.- Simonian vision, material economic progress was seen as a
crucial component to this pro cess. In par tic u lar, effi cient communication
and transport networks would be of critical importance. By the time that
Alberdi wrote, some giant strides had certainly been taken in that direc-
tion, with the development of railroads and electric telegraphs. “In propor-
tion as space is annihilated by the marvelous power of steam and electric-
ity,” he enthused, “the nations of the world fi nd themselves brought closer
and closer together, so that they seem to form a single country.... Every
railway is worth a dozen alliances, every foreign loan is a frontier wiped
out.”
Th e dazzling visions of St.- Simon and Alberdi were, of course, not imple-
mented in anything like their grand entireties. But some important incre-
mental steps were taken in the course of the nineteenth century. Notable
progress was made, for example, in the facilitation of international trans-
port. Th e Congress of Vienna— not otherwise remarkable for St.- Simonian
inclinations— adopted a Règlement for the Free Navigation of Rivers. Ac-
tion was fi rst taken regarding the Rhine. Tolls were abolished, and naviga-
tion supervised by a shipping commission. Similar arrangements were ar-
rived at for other rivers, including the Elbe, the Danube, and the Po.
Provisions were also made for two key man- made waterways. One was
the Suez Canal, which opened in 1869. Usage of it was governed by the Con-
stantinople Convention of 1888. (Not until 1904, however, was this agree-
ment brought into eff ective force.) Broadly similar arrangements were
made for the Panama Canal, in the Hay- Pauncefort Agreement between
Britain and the United States in 1901. Special care was taken to ensure the
“neutralization” of the these two key waterways— basically meaning that,
even in time of war, warships from belligerent states would be allowed to use
the canals (contrary to the general rule of neutrality, that neutral states must
not allow belligerent armed forces to cross their territories).
International cooperation was or ga nized in other technical and func-
tional (i.e., nonpo liti cal) areas, too. Postal communication was one. At the
beginning of the nineteenth century, states began to conclude bilateral trea-
ties on postal ser vice. In 1874, a General Postal Union was established,
based in Geneva. Four years later, it was transformed into the Universal