threads / economic system #7

1. 27 December 1703

   Methuen Treaty

   also in State, law, and coercion

   Trade treaty between England and Portugal exchanging preferential duties on English woolens for Portuguese wine. It tied Portugal's economy and diplomacy to Britain for generations.

2. 22 March 1833

   Zollverein

   also in State, law, and coercion

   Treaties uniting most German states in a customs union under Prussian leadership, effective from January 1834. It knitted Germany together economically decades before political unification.

3. 31 March 1854

   Convention of Kanagawa

   also in State, law, and coercion

   Treaty concluded under pressure from Commodore Perry's squadron, opening two Japanese ports to American ships and ending two centuries of Japanese seclusion. It began Japan's forced opening to the West.

4. 23 January 1860

   Cobden-Chevalier Treaty

   also in State, law, and coercion

   Free trade treaty between Britain and France cutting tariffs and pioneering the most-favored-nation clause. It triggered a wave of trade liberalization across Europe.

5. 17 May 1930

   Founding of the Bank for International Settlements

   also in Money and finance, The Bank for International Settlements, The bankers, The central bankers and the road to war

   The BIS opens in Basel, created to handle German war reparations under the Young Plan. It survived as the bank for central banks and the oldest international financial institution.

6. 22 July 1944

   Bretton Woods system

   also in Paper money, central banks, and credit creation

   financial-economic agreement reached in 1944

7. 27 December 1945

   Founding of the International Monetary Fund

   also in Money and finance, The IMF, the World Bank, and the developing world

   The IMF's Articles of Agreement, drawn up at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, enter into force when 29 countries sign, creating the institution charged with stabilizing exchange rates and the international monetary system.

8. 27 December 1945

   Founding of the World Bank

   also in The bankers

   The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, designed at Bretton Woods in 1944, formally comes into existence to finance postwar reconstruction and later development lending worldwide.

9. 30 October 1947

   General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

   multilateral agreement regulating international trade

10. 16 April 1948

    Founding of the OEEC

    also in World order: the transnational forums

    Sixteen European states create the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation in Paris to administer Marshall Plan aid and coordinate postwar reconstruction. It was reorganized as the OECD in 1961.

11. January 1949

    Founding of Comecon

    The Soviet Union and five Eastern European states found the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance at a Moscow conference held 5 to 8 January, announced on 25 January, as the Eastern bloc's answer to the Marshall Plan.

12. 3 May 1960

    Founding of the European Free Trade Association

    The Stockholm Convention enters into force, creating EFTA among seven European states as a free trade alternative to the European Economic Community.

13. 14 September 1960

    Founding of OPEC

    also in The Gulf and the oil monarchies

    Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela found the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries at a conference in Baghdad to coordinate oil policies against the dominance of Western oil companies.

14. 30 September 1961

    Founding of the OECD

    also in World order: the transnational forums

    The OECD Convention, signed in December 1960, enters into force, transforming the Marshall Plan-era OEEC into a broader club of market democracies that sets economic policy standards and statistics.

15. 19 December 1966

    Founding of the Asian Development Bank

    also in The bankers

    The Asian Development Bank is established in Manila to finance economic development across Asia and the Pacific, modeled on the World Bank.

16. 1971

    End of the Bretton Woods system

    also in From Bretton Woods to the euro: monetary regimes around Japan, Princes of the Yen: Japan built, bubbled, and broken

    Under the Bretton Woods system, which lasted until 1971, much of the world had fixed exchange rates with the U.S. dollar, forcing other countries to accept dollars at given rates while the United States printed large amounts of them.

    • At the time, much of the world had fixed exchange rates with the U.S. dollar under the Bretton Woods system (until 1971).

      Princes of the Yen
17. 24 January 1971

    Founding of the World Economic Forum

    Klaus Schwab convenes the first European Management Forum in Davos, gathering business executives for an annual meeting. Renamed the World Economic Forum in 1987, it became the best known gathering of global business and political elites.

18. December 1971

    Smithsonian Agreement fixes the yen at 308 per dollar

    also in 1971: the dollar unchained, From Bretton Woods to the euro: monetary regimes around Japan, Princes of the Yen: Japan built, bubbled, and broken

    After the yen rose following the Nixon shock, the short-lived Smithsonian Agreement of December 1971 fixed the yen at 308 to the dollar.

    • Then, the yen rose, triggering the short-lived Smithsonian Agreement, which fixed it at ¥308/$ in December 1971.

      Princes of the Yen
19. 18 November 1974

    Founding of the International Energy Agency

    Industrialized oil-importing countries create the IEA within the OECD framework after the 1973 oil crisis, to coordinate emergency oil stocks and energy policy.

20. 15 November 1975

    Founding of the Group of Seven (G7)

    Leaders of France, West Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US hold the first economic summit at the Chateau de Rambouillet amid oil shock and recession. Canada joined in 1976, making it the G7.

    • we are discussing the problem of some seven million students in our elementary schools alone.

      Life in Classrooms
21. 26 March 1991

    Treaty of Asuncion

    also in State, law, and coercion

    Treaty among Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay creating Mercosur, a southern common market. It became the main trade bloc of South America.

22. 28 June 1991

    Dissolution of Comecon

    At its final council session in Budapest, Comecon members agree to dissolve the Soviet-led economic bloc as communist rule collapses across Eastern Europe.

23. 1992

    Maastricht Treaty lays foundations for European monetary union

    also in Building Europe: from coal and steel to union, From Bretton Woods to the euro: monetary regimes around Japan, Paper money, central banks, and credit creation, Princes of the Yen: Japan built, bubbled, and broken

    The Maastricht Treaty of 1992 laid the foundations for monetary union in Europe and defined the role of a totally independent European Central Bank, becoming the model for central bank independence worldwide.

    • The most forceful case in favor of central bank independence was made in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, which laid the foundations for monetary union in Europe.

      Princes of the Yen
24. 17 December 1992

    North American Free Trade Agreement

    also in State, law, and coercion

    Agreement creating a free trade area among the United States, Canada, and Mexico, effective 1994. It reshaped North American supply chains and the politics of trade.

25. 15 April 1994

    Marrakesh Agreement

    also in State, law, and coercion

    Agreement concluding the Uruguay Round and establishing the World Trade Organization with binding dispute settlement. It created the legal foundation of the modern global trading system.

26. 1 January 1995

    Founding of the World Trade Organization

    also in Capitalism, liberalism, and the isms

    The WTO begins operation under the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement, replacing the GATT framework with a permanent organization to govern world trade rules and settle trade disputes.

27. 26 September 1999

    Founding of the G20

    also in Asian crisis and the blocked Asian Monetary Fund

    G7 finance ministers announce a new Group of Twenty of major advanced and emerging economies after the Asian financial crisis, with an inaugural meeting in Berlin that December. It became a leaders' summit in 2008.

28. 16 January 2016

    Founding of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

    also in The bankers

    The China-led AIIB opens for business in Beijing with 57 founding members, a new multilateral bank for infrastructure lending in Asia seen as a counterweight to the World Bank and ADB.

29. 8 March 2018

    Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership

    also in State, law, and coercion

    Trade agreement among eleven Pacific Rim economies, salvaged after the United States left the original TPP. It sets high-standard rules on trade, investment, and digital commerce.

30. 21 March 2018

    African Continental Free Trade Area

    also in State, law, and coercion

    Agreement creating a continent-wide free trade area covering most African states, the largest by membership since the WTO was formed. Trading under the agreement began in 2021.

31. 30 November 2018

    United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement

    also in State, law, and coercion

    Trade agreement replacing NAFTA with updated rules on autos, labor, and digital trade. It entered into force in July 2020.

32. 15 November 2020

    Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership

    also in State, law, and coercion

    Free trade agreement among fifteen Asia-Pacific countries including China, Japan, South Korea, and the ASEAN states. Measured by members' GDP it is the largest trade bloc in history.

33. 30 December 2020

    EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement

    also in State, law, and coercion

    Agreement governing trade and cooperation between the European Union and the United Kingdom after Brexit, providing tariff-free trade in goods with new border formalities. It took effect when the transition period ended.