States and Markets: A Global Historical Sociology of Capitalist Governance

This chapter examines the relationship between states and markets over the last century and develops insights from global history into international relations and historical sociology. It borrows a key concept from global history to show how entanglements are patterned through power relations, demonstrating a differentiation and sequencing of state–market complexes. It also identifies several main phases in the modern relationship between states and markets, such as the running from the third quarter of the nineteenth century to World War I that was marked by high flows of capital and finance. The chapter cites the interwar years that were marked by capital controls and a reduction in global transactions. It illustrates the gradual relaxation of capital controls and the partial recovery of financial and capital flows from 1945 to 1973 and the high capital mobility from the early 1970s until the present day.