The First Globalization Debate: Crusoe vs. Gulliver

Journal title QA Rivista dell’Associazione Rossi-Doria
Author/s Craufurd D. Goodwin
Publishing Year 2011 Issue 2011/3 Language English
Pages 19 P. 107-125 File size 290 KB
DOI 10.3280/QU2011-003005
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Two of the earliest novels in English, Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe and Gulliver’s Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift, are widely perceived as an entertaining adventure story and a pioneering work of science fiction. Viewed by modern economists, however, they appear as expressions of opposing positions on the desirability of integration within a world economy. Crusoe demonstrated the gains from trade and colonization and the attendant social and political benefits. By contrast, Swift warned of complex entanglements that would arise from globalization, especially with foreign leaders who operated from theory and models rather than common sense.

Keywords: Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Robinson Crusoe, Gulliver’s Travels, Globalization debate, International trade, Colonies

Jel codes: B110, B310, F020

  • The Use (and Abuse) of Robinson Crusoe in Neoclassical Economics Fritz Söllner, in History of Political Economy /2016 pp.35
    DOI: 10.1215/00182702-3452291

Craufurd D. Goodwin, The First Globalization Debate: Crusoe vs. Gulliver in "QA Rivista dell’Associazione Rossi-Doria" 3/2011, pp 107-125, DOI: 10.3280/QU2011-003005