Fossil Diplomacy: The Franco-British Commercial Treaty of 1860 and the Environmental History of International Thought

The Franco-British trade agreement masterminded by the French economist Michel Chevalier and the radical British manufacturer Richard Cobden has long been hailed - and condemned - as a landmark in the history of free trade economics. How might its meaning be reinterpreted in light of the recent turn to environmental and energetic perspectives in the historiography of nineteenth century liberalism? Focusing on the special treatment afforded to the coal trade in the negotiations, this paper argues that, after 1860, contemporaries increasingly saw a European 'system' of commercial treaties as kind of infrastructure for the circulation of energy and raw materials demanded by industrialising economies. Commitment to the free flow of raw materials transcended conventional oppositions between 'free trade' and 'protectionist' economics, establishing legal norms that continue to shape world trade politics today.