Kaufman, Burton I.
Efficiency and Expansion

Foreign Trade Organization in the Wilson Administration, 1913-1921.

High on America's list of priorities in the early 20th century was the development of foreign trade and foreign policy. The Wilson administration created an elaborate organizational structure, based in both the private and public sectors, for the functional interaction of foreign policy and foreign trade. The structure was erected despite early Wilsonian tendencies toward laissez-faire in a free world marketplace. The form and rationale of the foreign trade structure were largely influenced by the "gospel of efficiency" and by German success in promoting trade abroad. Its scope and its power brought modification of administration attitudes, even so far as to exempt from the penalties of anti-trust laws those business combinations formed for expansion of foreign trade. Such are the theses Burton Kaufman projects in this work. He studies the structural mechanisms on local, regional, and national levels, placing special emphasis on a distinct movement by groups hoping for a foreign trade centered along the Mississippi River. He traces the origins and control of the structure's components, and rationalizes the minimal participation by organized labor, agriculture, and small business. Kaufman elaborates on the effects of World War I on the policy/trade structure. Early phases of the war brought beckoning opportunity to expansionists because Germany and England had been removed from valued market areas. Later phases posed a threatening hazard because of war-generated efficiencies America's competitors would likely be able to carry over into postwar business campaigns. XVIII,300 Seiten, gebunden (Contributions in American History; No. 34/Greenwood Press 1974) Schnitt etwas angeschmutzt, einige Bleistiftmarkierungen/edges slightly soiled, some pencil markings