Diasporas and Labour Systems: The Mining Sector

Abstract

World trade underwent a profound change in the century prior to World War One. The volume of trade grew on average at between four and five per cent a year compared to one per cent over the preceding hundred years (O’Brien 1997:81–2). This was concomitant with two unprecedented changes within the Atlantic economy. The first was the liberal dismantling of mercantilism after the Napoleonic Wars and the second was declining transport costs associated with the transport revolution. Together they produced the global integration of world commodity markets and the expansion of trade in both qualitative and quantitative terms (See O’Rourke and Williamson 1999).