When Free Trade First Faltered
Marc-William PalenFinance and Development, November 11, 2025
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The “first age” of globalization was beset by contradictions. In the 60 years or so before World War I, global trade grew rapidly despite the ever-higher tariff walls built by the rising protectionist empires. Geopolitical conflicts and trade wars grew more common even as markets became more integrated.
These contradictions were at the heart of heated debates over free trade and economic nationalism that dominated the industrializing world at the time, Marc-William Palen writes in F&D magazine. “Emerging economic nationalism today eerily echoes the first age of globalization—and is an even bigger bundle of contradictions,” he says.
“Nationalist forces reemerged from the Great Recession of 2008–09 as a potent political and economic force across the globe. And yet ours is a world of extraordinary economic interdependence wrought from technological marvels.”
