Article: After Free Trade https://bostonreview.net/articles/after-free-trade/
The Suez Canal cut the time it took to travel from London to Mumbai in half; Panama did the same for travel times in the Americas. Complex global commodity chains emerged for the first time. Their network structure was amazingly hierarchical: by the end of the nineteenth century, every part of the world was connected to Europe, if not necessarily to adjacent countries or even neighboring provinces. In the Western Hemisphere, the only international rail links were in North America; they were meant to carry lumber, grain, and hides out of Canada and silver, gold, copper, and nickel from Mexico in exchange for finished goods from the United States.