Once unquestionably the world's leading economic and industrial power, the United States now views with growing dismay … United States truly lagging in its ability to compete effectively in world markets? Concern over this question has been …, policymakers, and those in the business world …

for the United States but also with reference to the wider world. We establish the outlines of international integration a … century ago and analyze the institutional and informational impediments that prevented the late nineteenth century world from … achieving the same degree of integration as today. We conclude that the world today is different: commercial and financial …