<Dd> the aim to reshape the world through free trade and its extension overseas owed more to the misplaced optimism of British policy - makers and their partial views of the world than to an understanding of the realities of the mid-19th century globe...the volumes of trade and investment...the British were able to generate remained limited...Local economies and local regimes proved adept at restricting the reach of British trade and investment . Local impediments to foreign inroads, the inhabitants' low purchasing power, the resilience of local manufacturing, and the capabilities of local entrepreneurs meant that these areas effectively resisted British economic penetration . </Dd> <P> The idea that free - trade imperial states use informal controls to secure their expanding economic influence has attracted Marxists trying to avoid the problems of earlier Marxist interpretations of capitalism . The approach is most often applied to American policies . </P>

The imperialism of free trade gallagher and robinson