When I tried to explain how the boundaries of trade changed during the 1800s to Cora, I managed to confuse us both. This is not an era that can be dissected blithely, even by an educated adult. However, we'll give this century a shot, and we will most likely refer back to this time period when we explain the workings of America's current foreign trade policies.

Perhaps the most important lessons we can learn from the 1800's are how definitions of freedom, and the developments of race relations, politics, and immigration and migration fueled colonial expansion and the implementation of colonization. Many objections to the WTO (World Trade Organization) and other corporate financial entities are rooted in these historic developments. To simplify this explanation, we broke down the term "colonization" to see where this would lead us.

Michael Hechter's book, Internal Colonialism: The Celtic Fringe in British National Development, is heavy reading for any teen; however, when I brought his definition of colonialism to Cora's attention (and simplified the explanation), she comprehended the implications of this political and financial entity. Hechter states there are three forms of colonization, but "there are no hard and fast" lines surrounding these three concepts, which are "core colony, internal colony, and peripheral colony." For example, colonial America consisted of a series of core colonies created and ruled by Great Britain, France, and Spain, and the areas surrounding the first colonies were peripheral colonies, including Native American cultures and early immigrants who integrated into these Native American societies. Within colonial America, internal colonies developed as changes were made in the structure of politics and trade. Hechter's guidelines for defining these colonial structures are:

1. The degree of administrative integration (how laws passed for the core colony affect peripheral regions)
2. The makeup of citizenship in the periphery, in regards to civil, political, and social rights
3. The prestige of the peripheral colony
4. The geography of the area, and the ability to travel between each form of colony
5. The length of association between the core and the periphery

If you held onto the map book from the previous week's discussion, you'll see how the boundaries of western America expanded over the Smoky Mountains, and this expansion exemplifies the guidelines above. This mountain range was a barrier - both physically and politically (#1, #2, & #4) - but it represented an area that was considered a major player in supplies to the foreign trade market. Within these mountains, Native Americans (periphery) and immigrants to the New World (core) considered themselves foreign to each other (#5), yet many groups between these two nationalities became partners in the European fur trade (#3). The boundaries of colonization changed once the principle of supply and demand altered the fur market, because each numbered guideline above changed in the relationships among Great Britain, the colonies, and Native American tribes.

The roots of colonization are important to understand, because this form of subjugation - or settlement and enforced regulation - is part and parcel of the workings of internal and external trade. One of major disruptions to the development and maintenance of trade is anarchy (This is an understatement, but I need to keep it blunt for Cora's understanding). Anarchy, defined as political disorder or confusion, usually arises when an internal colony rejects political authority set by groups who settle in their area, or who use their resources with little or no compensation.

We found many fine examples of eighteenth and nineteenth century anarchy that affected trade development in this country. A simple breakdown of these events include: the Revolutionary War, where colonial America fought against the subjugation of Great Britain; the Louisiana Purchase, where France sold land to the American colonies to finance war efforts (this was a foreign trade of land and money that encouraged further colonization and anarchy); the War of 1812, where America fought to maintain and develop their freedom and developing markets; the Civil War, a battle fought - in principle - to free America's internal colony of slave laborers; and the various battles fought within the colonies and developing states to overthrow regulations handed down from colonial hierarchies. One example of the latter is portrayed by the movie, "Gangs of New York," where Irish immigrants rebel against internal colonization and the Civil War draft.*

The terms "colony" and "colonization" are not archaic, and this is one key to understanding some trade market situations. A labor problem developed when the slave trade was abolished, because "free" labor was no longer available for various industries (both in the north and the south). In this instance, sweatshops emerged, and women and children were formed into a new internal colony as they were subjugated by businesses seeking cheap labor. When laws were passed to help eliminate this problem, businesses sought new sources for their labor forces. In reaction to this move, unions were developed to protect workers from internal colonization for profit. However, laws and unions often do not reach beyond American borders, nor into areas where people risk livelihoods and/or deportation if they commit anarchist acts.

As we turn the pages into the 1900s, we find international trade is turned on and off like a light switch as America grows into a world power, and as many countries trade supplies for political cooperation. Next week, we'll look at the changes magnified by the Industrial Revolution and both World Wars, and how this timeframe positioned America as an international financial force during the first half of the twentieth century.

Until Then,
Linda Goin

* The movie industry often distorts events for our entertainment, and - as a result - also alters some historic facts in the process. It might help to read books about this historic rebellion, or to look up "civil war draft riots" on the Internet as an antidote to this problem.