global economy in historical context early patterns of global finance and trade, largely supported...
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Global Economy in Historical Context
• Early Patterns of Global Finance and Trade, largely supported state building, war making, and colonization.– 14th C.-Florentine Merchant Banks (Peruzzi Company)
• Financed Trade with Asia• “Supercompany”: also produced cloth transnationally
– 16th -18th C.-• Antwerp, Belgium financial center• Bank of England financed Britains war with France• British and Dutch East India Companies• Hudson Bay Company
– 18th C.-Amsterdam and London are global cities
Global Economy in Historical Context: 1850-WWII
• MNCs establish colonial operations– Extractive and Primary Industries; Mining, Logging– Agriculture: Plantations and Ranches; Fruit and Tea – Oil companies emerge – MNCs import textiles and decimate indigenous
industries
• Industrial Age: 1870-1914– Classical Gold Standard Period: Skeptics argue that this
was the only truly globalized era.– Telegraph drastically improves communication
Global Economy in Historical Context: Interwar Years
• Interwar years: Global Monetary Disorder– Collapse of the Gold Standard– German Hyperinflation– Domestic investments predominate
• Trade protectionism and cartels dominate remaining international business
• Soviet Union withdraws from int’l market
Global Economy: The Bretton Woods Years
• 1944 Meeting in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire• Marshall Plan• IMF: short term loans, also administered global
financial order– Compromise between free trade and social democrats
– Discrepancies between European and developing world
• World Bank: Infrastructural Development• GATT: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
Global Economy: Development 1950’s-1960’s
• Decolonization: finished by early 1960’s: however global capital is afraid of conflict and turmoil
• Marshall plan is completed, IMF and World Bank turn to new independent states.
• “Progress, modernization, infrastructure”• Development embedded in Cold War
conflicts; used as geopolitical strategy
Global Economy: Big Changes in the 1970’s
• 1971: Nixon delinks dollar from gold standard floating exchange rates
• OPEC cartel quadruples oil prices”petrodollars”
• US/Euro Banks have $50 billion to loan
• Developing countries receive this boon in the forms of government and private loans
Global Economy: Neoliberal 1980’s
• Early 1980’s-Debt crisis begins: world wide interest rates soar/ global recession/fall in commodity prices
• IMF imposes Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs) to justify additional loans.
• “Green Revolution,” Industrial Agriculture and commodity “dumping” drive small farmers out of business
• Rural-Urban Migration in Developing World• IMF riots• 1989-Fall of USSR and end of Cold War• Market economy is the only game in town
Global Economy in the 1990’s
• Structural Adjustment continues and critique intensifies
• Global Assembly Line-MNC’s• Export Processing Zones• “Free” Trade and Financial Flows• Industrial/Export Agriculture• Internal and External Migration continues• Rise of the Megacity and the Informal Economy• Rise of Transnational Communities
The Global Assembly Line
VW’s Global Assembly Line
1. U.S. 2. Japan 3. Germany
23. Turkey 24. General
Motors 28. Ford Motors 29. Norway 30. Mitsui & Co. 33. Mitsubishi 34. Royal Dutch
Shell
35. Itochu 36. Saudi Arabia 37. Exxon 38. Wal-mart 39. Greece 47. Israel 48. General
Electric 57. Ireland
Country v. Corporate Economic Size: World Ranks-GDP and Sales
The Rise of Multinationals
• Overheads
Differences in Wage Rates
Average 1996 wages of workers who make Suburbans
U.S. $18.96/hr. Mexico $1.54/hr.
# of Suburbans producedMexico 80,400U.S. 83,000
Comparative Wage Rates: US/Mexico
The Cost of a Shoe
• Early 1960s - Oregon• 1967 – Japan• 1972 - S. Korea and Taiwan• 1986 – Indonesia, China and
Thailand• 1994 - Vietnam
Globe-trotting Nike
Industrial relocation: non-labor factors
• Government incentives and regulations– Provision of infrastructure (Export Processing
Zones)– Reduced cost of land, water, electricity– Tax breaks and tariff reductions– Lower environmental pollution standards– Lower health and safety standards
Global Growth in EPZs
Region(No. of EPZs)
Key Countries (No. of EPZs)
Latin America and the Caribbean (240) Central America and Mexico (148) Caribbean (51) South America (41)
Mexico (107) Honduras (15)Costa Rica (9) Dominican Republic (35)Colombia (11) Brazil (8)
Europe and NIS (81) Slovenia (8) Bulgaria (8)
Asia and Near East (264) Turkey (11) Philippines (35) Indonesia (26) Jordan (7) China (124)
Africa (47) Kenya (14) Egypt (6)
Oceania (2) Fiji (1)
Total (633)
Map of world trade interconnectedness
Exports -1982 36 %1994 50 %
Imports –1982 31 %
1994 42 %
Intra-Firm Transfers -U.S. Corporations Data
61% MFG - 77% EXPORTS
Global Production: Social Issues
• Health and Safety of Workers• Coercive Working Conditions• Anti Union Environment• Government Involvement in Coercion and Lack of
Participation/Democracy in Decisionmaking• Child Labor
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/decl/intro/ilo_movie/index.htm
Blue Jeans in Torreon
Torreon, Coahila, Mexico
Blue Jeans in Torreon
• Shifting Power: better local development?• Commodity chain approach
– Production, Marketing, also Social Movements, Governments
• Gereffi, 2001: “By focusing on the chain or organizational network as the unit of analysis, rather than the firm, interesting questions about power, governance and the dynamics of chains emerge.”
Maquiladora Growth
Industry Statistics - Mexico
The Maquiladora Industry in Mexico, January 1994-1999 Border Region
# Employees Jan '94
# Employees Jan '99
# Maquilas Jan '94
# Maquilas Jan '99
Baja California
111,728 217,366 822 1,090
Sonora 43,670 85,646 182 252
Chihuahua 166,134 274,998 305 379 Coahuila 47,830 99,604 185 268
Tamaulipas 100,027 152,276 293 351 Subtotal Border States
469,389 829,890 1,787 2,340
Other States 77,044 230,327 370 803 Total 546,433 1,060,217 2,157 3,143
Source: In: Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, Annual Report 1999
Table 1. Apparel industry indicators for Torreon /La Laguna
Table 2. Main clients for Torreon apparel exports
Pre-Nafta Manufacturer Dominated Assembly Network in Torreon
Post Nafta Full Package Networks in Torreon
US¯Torreon apparel commodity chain
activities and location.
Top 10 apparel manufacturers in Torreon, Mexico¯¯July 2000
Maquila Solidarity Network Critique
• “Toxic Fashions” and “Blue jean blues” require toxic chemicals
• Mercerization: Sulphur, caustic soda, acid
• Tinting and Overdyes-manually crunched, rubbed and sponged
• Bleaching and Stonewashing: Amylase, Laccase
• Drying and Baking: Toxic fumes from ovens
• Pollution of water Supplies
Code Initiatives in North
• UK: Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI)• US:
• Fair Labor Association (FLA)• Workers Rights Consortium (University Clothing)
• US/Europe: SA 8000 (Social Accountability 8000)
• WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Apparel Production) Lower Standards
Changing Labor Conditions?-upside
• Labor “shortages” due to more skilled labor• High turnover- Labor wars• Higher wages• Upscale labels promote improved working
condition• New factories are often better than US apparel
factories• Codes of Conduct displayed (but in English!!)
Changing Labor Conditions?-downside
• Concentration of Ownership in few extended families
• Men more readily promoted to management positions
• Mexican Government has reduced the power of unions to a minimum
• Higher wages must be seen in context of 1994 devaluation of peso decline in living standards over last 5 years
Steps to Socially Just Production
• “Network of Central American Women in Solidarity with Maquila Workers” negotiate code of conduct with Nicaraguan Labor Ministry
Torreon Chamber of Commerce
http://www.torreon.gob.mx/index2.htm