The essence of capitalism’s foreign policy is free trade—i.e., the abolition
of trade barriers, of protective tariffs, of special privileges—the opening of
the world’s trade routes to free international exchange and competition among
the private citizens of all countries dealing directly with one another.
During the nineteenth century, it was free trade that liberated the world,
undercutting and wrecking the remnants of feudalism and the statist tyranny of
absolute monarchies.