Andrew Roberts (website, follow on X) is a historian, Visiting Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a member of the House of Lords. He joins the podcast to talk about his Napoleon: A Life. The conversation begins with a discussion of different counterfactuals regarding ways in which Napoleon might have been able to stay in power, which leads to Roberts explaining his view that the wars of the era could be understood at least in part as resulting from a rejection of free trade. Other topics include:
Rejection of free trade was indeed a big mistake even back as far as the 18th century, but it is not very obvious that any of Napoleon's campaigns were motivated by desire for plunder of resources that could not have been obtained by trade. [Egypt is perhaps an exception.] Nor were they motivated bu the desire to forcible remove trade barriers by the defeated powers.
Rejection of free trade was indeed a big mistake even back as far as the 18th century, but it is not very obvious that any of Napoleon's campaigns were motivated by desire for plunder of resources that could not have been obtained by trade. [Egypt is perhaps an exception.] Nor were they motivated bu the desire to forcible remove trade barriers by the defeated powers.