Cultural transfer of free trade at the World Exhibitions, 1851–1862

Globalization is a contested concept, but some of its main features are obviously shaping the world at the beginning of the twenty-first century. They include rapidly growing world trade and global economic interdependence, trade liberalization and intense economic competition, and the transnational search for the best policy framework with which to deal with the opportunities as well as the social costs of rapid technological and socioeconomic change.