The end of innocence in European trade

European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton: ‘Europe stays open for business. But we're being a bit less naive.’ Photograph: Olivier Hoslet / EPA The idea that trade produces peace between nations has an old history in Europe. "Peace is the natural effect of trade," the French Enlightenment thinker Montesquieu wrote in his 1748 work, The Spirit of Law. "Two nations who traffic with each other become reciprocally dependent." In modern times this concept has been most closely associated with Germany, as a core principle of its foreign policy. The idea is known as "Wandel durch Handel", or change through…