COMMERCIAL TREATIES

In cla ical times treaties of trade and commerce were made. Agreements were made frequently in the Middle Ages about commercial transactions. Commercial treaties more like those now made appear from the XII cent., for then several European cities, the most important, perhaps, Venice and Genoa, rise into prominence. England made a treaty with Norway in 1217, and then others with various countries. Naturally, a treaty was generally simply an arrangement between two states, and sometimes it took the form of granting to another nation privileges already enjoyed by one—the ‘most favored nation’ principle. Of modern developments the most important is that of the intimate connection of commercial treaties with tariffs, whereby the tariff is a means of bargaining between two countries, Following the World War there was a general reconstruction of commercial treaties, resulting from world-wide changes in the industrial system of the world.