01456pab a2200157 454500 180718b1999 xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d Lazer, David The free trade epidemic of the 1860s and other outbreaks of economic discrimination 1999 p.447-83 Jul Why was there an abrupt increase in economic openness in Europe in the 1860s? This increase may have been the result of a contagion process, in which the Cobden-Chevalier treaty between Britain and France threatened to displace third-party exports to France with British exports. As a result, most European states signed similar treaties with France, which had further ripple effects. This article outlines a formal model of this process, based on the assumption that an agreement between two states increases the desirability of similar treaties to third parties. Propositions regarding the rate and pattern of spread of treaties are derived from this model. This article then discusses the insights these propositions may offer into the rise and fall of the most-favored-nation network of treaties between 1860 and 1929. At a theoretical level the model aims to link the microlevel processes underlying state preferences to system-level phenomena. At a substantive level this analysis offers insight into the current explosion of regionalism. - Reproduced Free trade World Politics 43529 43529 43529 0 0 0 0 IIPA IIPA 2018-07-19 Volume no: 51, Issue no: 4 AR43925 2018-07-19 2018-07-19 AR