Dr Mohsen al Attar

Financial globalisation is convoluted. To navigate the architecture that facilitates flows of cross-border finance, it is necessary to understand a little (perhaps a lot) about the nature of commercial activity, monetary and fiscal policy, and global political economy, topics partially covered in this podcast. Central to the growth of commercial activity is capital, sometimes as equity but mostly as credit. To fund the production of tradeable goods or the delivery of tradeable services, providers need money. While this has always been true, the globalisation of a market for finance only developed during the neoliberal era; though it would be more accurate to acknowledge that the current version of financial globalisation is beset with a neoliberal personality. In the following podcast, I examine both the history of the liberalisation of capital as well as the contemporary standing of capital in IEL. 

Financial globalisation is convoluted. To navigate the architecture that facilitates flows of cross-border finance, it is necessary to understand a little (perhaps a lot) about the nature of commercial activity, monetary and fiscal policy, and global political economy, topics partially covered in this podcast. Central to the growth of commercial activity is capital, sometimes as equity but mostly as credit. To fund the production of tradeable goods or the delivery of tradeable services, providers need money. While this has always been true, the globalisation of a market for finance only developed during the neoliberal era; though it would be more accurate to acknowledge that the current version of financial globalisation is beset with a neoliberal personality. 

In the following podcast, I examine both the history of the liberalisation of capital as well as the contemporary standing of capital in IEL. 

What is neoliberalism? David Harvey provides a simple treatise on the ideology: the introduction of competitive market forces into historically non-market spheres. Since the days of democratic capitalism, healthcare, education, electricity, and water provision were  the purview of public actors. This made sense. As necessities of life, these would be allocated universally rather than preferentially. Neoliberalism reject this logic, advocating for the subjugation of essential services to market logics of efficiency, competitiveness, and purchase-power based allocation. Of course, the promise was not that the rich would line their pockets but that the increased competitiveness would enhance efficiency and place downward pressure on prices. Public assets were sold, public services were privatised, and taxes were slashed all in the name of public welfare. Even Orwell was never so brazen. In the following episode, I detail the rise of neoliberalism and its implications for international economic law. 

What is neoliberalism? David Harvey provides a simple treatise on the ideology: the introduction of competitive market forces into historically non-market spheres. Since the days of democratic capitalism, healthcare, education, electricity, and water provision were  the purview of public actors. This made sense. As necessities of life, these would be allocated universally rather than preferentially. Neoliberalism reject this logic, advocating for the subjugation of essential services to market logics of efficiency, competitiveness, and purchase-power based allocation. Of course, the promise was not that the rich would line their pockets but that the increased competitiveness would enhance efficiency and place downward pressure on prices. Public assets were sold, public services were privatised, and taxes were slashed all in the name of public welfare. Even Orwell was never so brazen. In the following episode, I detail the rise of neoliberalism and its implications for international economic law. 

What is neoliberalism? David Harvey provides a simple treatise on the ideology: the introduction of competitive market forces into historically non-market spheres. Since the days of democratic capitalism, healthcare, education, electricity, and water provision were  the purview of public actors. This made sense. As necessities of life, these would be allocated universally rather than preferentially. Neoliberalism reject this logic, advocating for the subjugation of essential services to market logics of efficiency, competitiveness, and purchase-power based allocation. Of course, the promise was not that the rich would line their pockets but that the increased competitiveness would enhance efficiency and place downward pressure on prices. Public assets were sold, public services were privatised, and taxes were slashed all in the name of public welfare. Even Orwell was never so brazen. In the following episode, I detail the rise of neoliberalism and its implications for international economic law. 

What is neoliberalism? David Harvey provides a simple treatise on the ideology: the introduction of competitive market forces into historically non-market spheres. Since the days of democratic capitalism, healthcare, education, electricity, and water provision were  the purview of public actors. This made sense. As necessities of life, these would be allocated universally rather than preferentially. Neoliberalism reject this logic, advocating for the subjugation of essential services to market logics of efficiency, competitiveness, and purchase-power based allocation. Of course, the promise was not that the rich would line their pockets but that the increased competitiveness would enhance efficiency and place downward pressure on prices. Public assets were sold, public services were privatised, and taxes were slashed all in the name of public welfare. Even Orwell was never so brazen. In the following episode, I detail the rise of neoliberalism and its implications for the international economic law framework. 

Cotton is a subtropical plant that grows just north of the Equator and across three continents: Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Despite European familiarity with cotton—thanks to Muslim and Asian traders—Europeans could not grow cotton. The cotton products they obtained were already manufactured, denying them the greatest added-value. At least this was the state of affairs until Vasco de Gama discerned a route to the Indian subcontinent, allowing Europeans to bypass the Ottoman middlemen. 

To resolve the problem of resource constraints, Europeans seized the resources of others. Imperial expansion, expropriation, armed trade, enslavement, espionage, and other forms of organised violence disrupted traditional supply chains, substituting them with a Eurocentric one. And from there, European companies began to flood global markets with cotton goods. In the end, and as I explore in this episode, commerce and European access to the resources | markets of non-Europeans came to inform the modern international legal framework in operation today. 

Cotton and the Origins of Trans-Oceanic Trade | IEL Episode 3 - Part ACotton is a subtropical plant that grows just north of the Equator and across three continents: Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Despite European familiarity with cotton—thanks to Muslim and Asian traders—Europeans could not grow cotton. The cotton products they obtained were already manufactured, denying them the greatest added-value. At least this was the state of affairs until Vasco de Gama discerned a route to the Indian subcontinent, allowing Europeans to bypass the Ottoman middlemen. 

To resolve the problem of resource constraints, Europeans seized the resources of others. Imperial expansion, expropriation, armed trade, enslavement, espionage, and other forms of organised violence disrupted traditional supply chains, substituting them with a Eurocentric one. And from there, European companies began to flood global markets with cotton goods. In the end, and as I explore in this episode, commerce and European access to the resources | markets of non-Europeans came to inform the modern international legal framework in operation today. 

Cotton is a subtropical plant that grows just north of the Equator and across three continents: Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Despite European familiarity with cotton—thanks to Muslim and Asian traders—Europeans could not grow cotton. The cotton products they obtained were already manufactured, denying them the greatest added-value. At least this was the state of affairs until Vasco de Gama discerned a route to the Indian subcontinent, allowing Europeans to bypass the Ottoman middlemen. 

To resolve the problem of resource constraints, Europeans seized the resources of others. Imperial expansion, expropriation, armed trade, enslavement, espionage, and other forms of organised violence disrupted traditional supply chains, substituting them with a Eurocentric one. And from there, European companies began to flood global markets with cotton goods. In the end, and as I explore in this episode, commerce and European access to the resources | markets of non-Europeans came to inform the modern international legal framework in operation today. 

Cotton is a subtropical plant that grows just north of the Equator and across three continents: Africa, the Americas, and Asia. Despite European familiarity with cotton—thanks to Muslim and Asian traders—Europeans could not grow cotton. The cotton products they obtained were already manufactured, denying them the greatest added-value. At least this was the state of affairs until Vasco de Gama discerned a route to the Indian subcontinent, allowing Europeans to bypass the Ottoman middlemen. 

To resolve the problem of resource constraints, Europeans seized the resources of others. Imperial expansion, expropriation, armed trade, enslavement, espionage, and other forms of organised violence disrupted traditional supply chains, substituting them with a Eurocentric one. And from there, European companies began to flood global markets with cotton goods. In the end, and as I explore in this episode, commerce and European access to the resources | markets of non-Europeans came to inform the modern international legal framework in operation today.