Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2009
The system of administered trade has been quoted in the literature as an effective mechanism to insure trade between economically unequal countries while protecting the less-developed states from any real contact with more developed areas (see Polanyi et al. 1957, esp. Arnold: 1957,154–187).
Using the example of the traditional state of Morocco, this paper seeks to demonstrate that administered trade was not an effective safeguard against commerce with technologically advanced countries, and in fact, that the system itself contained features which, rather than protecting traditional countries, actually contributed to their conquest by more technologically advanced ones.