The Neomercantilists: A Global Intellectual History

At a time when critiques of free trade policies are gaining currency, The Neomercantilists helps make sense of the protectionist turn, providing the first intellectual history of the genealogy of neomercantilism. Eric Helleiner identifies many pioneers of this ideology between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries who backed strategic protectionism and other forms of government economic activism to promote state wealth and power. They included not just the famous Friedrich List, but also numerous lesser-known thinkers, many of whom came from outside of the West.

Helleiner's novel emphasis on neomercantilism's diverse origins challenges traditional Western-centric understandings of its history. It illuminates neglected local intellectual traditions and international flows of ideas that gave rise to distinctive varieties of the ideology around the globe, including in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. This rich history left enduring intellectual legacies, including in the two dominant powers of the contemporary world economy: China and the United States.

The result is an exceptional study of a set of profoundly influential economic ideas. While rooted in the past, it sheds light on the present moment. The Neomercantilists shows how we might construct more global approaches to the study of international political economy and intellectual history, devoting attention to thinkers from across the world, and to the cross-border circulation of thought.

Introduction: Neomercantilism's Diverse Intellectual Origins
Part I: THE LISTIAN INTELLECTUAL WORLD
1. Some Pioneers in List's German-US-French Context
2. Friedrich List's Idiosyncratic Synthesis
3. Some List-Inspired Contributions Across the World
4. List-Inspired Neomercantilism Beyond the Nation-State
Part II: HENRY CAREY AND HIS SUPPORTERS
5. The Emergence of Henry Carey's Distinctive Vision
6. The Global Influence and Adaptation of Carey's Ideas
Part III: ENDOGENOUS ROOTS OF EAST ASIAN NEOMERCANTILISM
7. Local Origins in Japan
8. Some Neglected Chinese Pioneers
9. Another Chinese Contribution and Korea's Gaehwa Group
Part IV: OTHER THEORISTS AND PRACTITIONERS
10. Early Theorists in Russia and the Canadian Backwoods
11. Practitioners in Egypt, Poland and Latin America
12. The Asante and the Pan-African Movement
Conclusion: What Legacies?

Eric Helleiner is Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo. He is the author of five previous books, including The Forgotten Foundations of Bretton Woods and The Status Quo Crisis.

A grand work of scholarship, the book easily accomplishes its goal of disrupting Western and List-centric readings of neomercantilism. Combining a close reading of neomercantilist texts with insights drawn from relevant primary and secondary sources, The Neomercantilists should prove a valuable resource for scholars interested in post-Napoleonic global governance and the world economy.

Helleiner is perhaps the most distinguished scholar in his generation of international political economists. Helleiner shows that there were as many flavors of neomercantilism as there were national, imperial, and postcolonial traditions.

The Neomercantilists is at once a timely intervention at a juncture of resurgent protectionism and geopolitical competition, and a timely contribution to the IPE literature that now abounds in global histories of liberalism and Marxism but lacks a matching study of neomercantilism. As such, it merits a place on the shelf next to Eli Heckscher's classic study of mercantilism.

[The Neomercantalists is a] thorough and careful scholarly work conducted at the highest level, and [it] has provided arguments about the global circulation of ideas and the drivers of change and transformation that will resonate and be engaged with by scholars within and beyond IPE.

This book is refreshing and fascinating—and not only for filling a gap in the broad ideological intellectual history[.] The book provides an excellent intellectual history of neomercantilism. Conveniently structured (some parts can be read on their own), beautifully written and well researched, it is one of the most significant IPE books I have had the pleasure to read in recent years.

Helleiner's book is essential for grasping earlier theories of state-led development that diverged from classical liberalism, as well as their relevance in an era where pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions and Russia's war in Ukraine have further eroded confidence globalization.