The spread of the telegraph and the growth of global markets radically transformed networks of communications and commerce from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. The two developments were intricately connected. Economic visions of world order rested on assumptions about communications that significantly affected patterns of global trade. Similarly, contesting visions of economic systems directly translated into competing ideas of global communication and universal peace. This conference brings together scholars of global communications and the economy to explore the interrelations between these two fields. The papers will examine international treaties, financial crises, global communications networks, and how they were connected to concepts of the world economy.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Harvard Asia Center, the Weatherhead Initiative for Global History, the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, the Deutsche Forschungsgeminschaft, and Stiftung Deutsch-Amerikanischer Wissenschaftsbeziehungen.
