Author: Dr. R.G. Beddows
American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) 1998 General Meeting - Toronto, May, 1998
Abstract
Globalisation to me means the increasing interdependence and integration of the economy globally, rather than just regionally or continentally. The United States integrated economically after the end of the Civil War. In the last 30 years of the 19th Century it changed for being a series of state or regional economies to being a national economy. Understanding the drivers of that enables one to understand the drivers behind the globalisation of the world economy which is now taking place. The railroads, the telegraph, a common language, standardisation of product and specifications, and fundamental to all this, the integration and freedom of capital markets, these were the drivers of the American economy. Parallel developments are the drivers of the global economy.
