China Market: America's Quest for Informal Empire, 1893-1901

McCormick's excellent book is a history detailing the reasons and methods for the United State's drive towards a fabled China Market. By the 1870's, the elites within the United State's faced by many cycles of boom and bust realized the need to create a buffer against social unrest. Rather than divide the economic pie more equitably the elite's realized it would be in their interests to enlarge the pie, but keep the divisions the same. McCormick's book explains the origins of our export oriented global economy. The building and controlling of the Panama Canal was seen as a key ingrediant to gain advantage over the other Industrialized Nations. First Panama had to be artificially carved out of Columbia. The Spanish American War was seen as alligned Cuba as a Protectorate of the Canal Zone as well as providing refueling stations, via the Phillipines, in the Pacific. A considerable obstacle was getting the Unites State's foot in the door in China. The other European powers all had dreams of controlling the China arket. John Hays game up with Open Door Notes legitimizing United States interests via the veil of comparative advantage. The Open Door notes can be interpreted as the seed that grew into the Wilsonian - Multlateral approach to world trade that has dominated economic theory since the end of the second world war. McCormicks work is a very important history which will help us understand the elite interest's behind foreign policy.