The Neomercantilists: A Global Intellectual History Eric Helleiner, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2021, pp. 414

Abstract

When I spotted this new book, I just had to read it immediately-it is one of those books that you know will make a splash. "This is not a book I planned to write," the author says in the preface (ix). It is a book he had to write. Researching intellectual histories in international political economy (IPE), Eric Helleiner discovered that a book on the intellectual history of neomercantilism was lacking-so he wrote it. Indeed, to the best of my knowledge, this is the first book-length coverage of the topic. Prominent scholars of IPE have characterized the field as having three leading ideologies: economic liberalism, Marxism and mercantilism; but the last of these has been given less attention than its two competitors. One could be forgiven for being less well read in this tradition when empirical trends were moving increasingly in a more liberal direction. However, in light of changes to the international liberal world order, and with the rise of national leaders who advance more protectionist policies (including in the United States, which recently had a president openly flirting with a reorientation away from liberalism and toward protectionism), students of IPE really need to go back to basics and study some of the origins of ideologies that are resurfacing today.The book starts off by characterizing neomercantilism as an ideology that was around during the birth of liberalism-but one that was critical of free trade. Neomercantilism offered an alternative discourse about successful strategies for growth-or how best to accumulate wealth -and about power. Helleiner provides a pre-1939 definition of neomercantilism as "a belief in the need for strategic trade protections and other forms of government economic activism to promote state wealth and power in the post-Smithian age" (4). By using this definition, Helleiner focuses on trade protectionism but also assumes that the thinkers he discusses are fully aware of the work of Adam Smith-in particular, The Wealth of Nations (1776)-and others in that tradition. In fact, Helleiner notes how Smith contributed to the naming of the school of thought by his coining of the term "the mercantile system" (6).The book seeks to explore neomercantilism, keeping in mind that the body of work that influenced it developed throughout the world. One of the most prominent thinkers discussed is the German writer Friedrich List-in particular, the ideas in his 1841 book Das nationale System der politischen Oekonomie, which was translated into English as The National System of Political Economy. Building on thinkers who came before him and on the work of contemporaries (such as Henry Carey, Alexander Hamilton and Daniel Raymond), List argued that in economies, industrialization needs to be prioritized over agriculture in order to ensure independence. Industrialization is also a way to safeguard the development of the military and secure defence. List worried that international relations were less peaceful than some of the liberals assumed, and he argued in favour of a more diversified eco...