2003 -
Work for this project so far has focused on emergent ideas about equity in trade and development as articulated by consumers groups and co-operatives in Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although primarily supported as a means of defending consumers rights in the context of domestic trade the co-operative movement, in particular, has always had an international dimension. One logical expression of this was a growing interest in the direct organisation of international trade on a co-operative basis. The project explores the stimuli to such trade, its extent in practice and the claims made for its positive potential as a means of promoting greater equity in national and international trade. The project thus has implications for wider discussion of the effects of protectionism and trade cartels, efforts to promote empire trade and understandings of relationships between trade and development.