Aims to debunk the myth that Britain was a free-trade nation during and after the industrial revolution, by revealing how the British used tariffs as a mercantilist tool to politically weaken France. This book shows that Britain did not transform smoothly from a mercantilist state in the 18th century to a bastion of free trade in the late 19th.

Preface ix Introduction xiii Chapter 1: Problems of Perspective: The Myth of Free Trade Britain and Fortress France 1 Chapter 2: The History of British Economic Policy 20 Chapter 3: The Unbearable Lightness of Drink: Assessing the Effects of British Tariffs on French Wine 32 Chapter 4: The Beginnings: Trade and the Struggle for European Power in the Late 1600s 44 Chapter 5: Counterfactuals or What If? 60 Chapter 6: Wine, Beer, and Money: The Political Economy of Brewing and Eighteenth-Century British Fiscal Policy 68 Chapter 7: The Political Economy of Nineteenth-Century Trade 89 Chapter 8: Trade and Taxes in Retrospect: Were British Fiscal Exceptionalism and Economic Success Linked? 110 Appendix: Modeling the Effects of British and French Tariffs on National Income 121 Notes 145 References 159 Index 167

"In War, Wine, and Taxes John Nye overturns the widespread belief that Britain promoted the free trade that eventually brought so many benefits in the nineteenth century. Britain, it turns out, was surprisingly protectionist, and the political economy of its tariffs has left a mark on French winemaking and on British pubs that still survives today."—Philip T. Hoffman, author of Growth in a Traditional Society: The French Countryside, 1450-1815

"The humorist Artemus Ward famously said, 'It ain't so much the things we don't know that get us into trouble. It's the things we do know that just ain't so.' Everyone knows that England was the first European nation to move, largely unilaterally, toward a free-trade regime. And everyone also knows that this was the cause of British prosperity and power. The problem is that it just ain't so, as Nye shows in this remarkable book. Using data that have long been available, but that have never been compiled and compared in any systematic manner, Nye meticulously discredits the conventional wisdom. And the history he writes of the economics of trade in beer and wine is a tour de force, well written and with as many strange characters and unexpected twists as a detective novel. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most controversial, and possibly the most important, book on political economy yet published in the new millennium."—Michael Munger, Duke University

"Nye's arguments are novel and fresh, and they are enunciated with great gusto. He brings to bear a fine intuition and understanding of economic analysis, and he combines his economic history with a deep understanding of political economy and the complex ways in which special interests and ideology jointly affect policy decisions. His analysis of the politics and economics of protectionist legislation is quite compelling, and his handling of the data and ability to see in them something that others have missed are quite impressive."—Joel Mokyr, author of The Gifts of Athena

"Nye provides a new view of British commercial policy and its links to financing war. Historians have long studied politics, war, taxation, and trade. What they have failed to do is see how all these are connected. Nye's strength is suggesting how these stories tie together into a single story. Along the way emerges a wonderful treatment of the industrial organization of beer and wine, particularly why Britain was a nation of beer drinkers and France of wine."—Barry Weingast, Stanford University

In War, Wine, and Taxes John Nye overturns the widespread belief that Britain promoted the free trade that eventually brought so many benefits in the nineteenth century. Britain, it turns out, was surprisingly protectionist, and the political economy of its tariffs has left a mark on French winemaking and on British pubs that still survives today. -- Philip T. Hoffman, author of "Growth in a Traditional Society: The French Countryside, 1450-1815" The humorist Artemus Ward famously said, 'It ain't so much the things we don't know that get us into trouble. It's the things we do know that just ain't so.' Everyone knows that England was the first European nation to move, largely unilaterally, toward a free-trade regime. And everyone also knows that this was the cause of British prosperity and power. The problem is that it just ain't so, as Nye shows in this remarkable book. Using data that have long been available, but that have never been compiled and compared in any systematic manner, Nye meticulously discredits the conventional wisdom. And the history he writes of the economics of trade in beer and wine is a tour de force, well written and with as many strange characters and unexpected twists as a detective novel. It is no exaggeration to say that this is the most controversial, and possibly the most important, book on political economy yet published in the new millennium. -- Michael Munger, Duke University Nye's arguments are novel and fresh, and they are enunciated with great gusto. He brings to bear a fine intuition and understanding of economic analysis, and he combines his economic history with a deep understanding of political economy and the complex ways in which special interests and ideology jointly affect policy decisions. His analysis of the politics and economics of protectionist legislation is quite compelling, and his handling of the data and ability to see in them something that others have missed are quite impressive. -- Joel Mokyr, author of "The Gifts of Athena" Nye provides a new view of British commercial policy and its links to financing war. Historians have long studied politics, war, taxation, and trade. What they have failed to do is see how all these are connected. Nye's strength is suggesting how these stories tie together into a single story. Along the way emerges a wonderful treatment of the industrial organization of beer and wine, particularly why Britain was a nation of beer drinkers and France of wine. -- Barry Weingast, Stanford University