The Integration of the European Economy Since 1815

Book excerpt: Sidney Pollard has provided a concise survey of economic issues for students of the European community. Going back to 1815, he links the progress of industrialisation in Europe to the relative ease with which ideas, men and capital were able to cross national frontiers. European frontiers make little economic sense and frequently cut across vital natural links. Professor Pollard shows how open frontiers speeded progress, in the particular circumstances of the spread of industrialisation from Britain to Western Europe and then to the rest of the continent, adn opened up new markets and opportunities of learning and technology transfer. Closed frontiers and the national selfishness of economic warfare led in contrast to stagnation, hostility and at times to all-out war. This classic study was first published in 1981.