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'The map that would save Europe': Clive Morrison-Bell, the Tariff Walls Map, and the politics of cartographic display

Heffernan, Mike; Thorpe, Benjamin J.

Authors

MIKE HEFFERNAN mike.heffernan@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Historical Geography

Benjamin J. Thorpe



Abstract

This essay uses the personal archives of Clive Morrison-Bell (1871-1956), a campaigning Conservative politician who made extensive use of maps and cartographic models, to consider the entangled histories of cartography, economics and geopolitics in early twentieth-century Britain. Particular attention is paid to Morrison-Bell’s Tariff Walls Map (TWM), a large three-dimensional model of Europe on which international borders were represented by actual physical walls, the varying heights of which indicated average tariff restrictions imposed on traded goods by each European country. The TWM was one of the most widely debated maps of the 1920s and 1930s. Versions were exhibited in national parliaments, government ministries, chambers of commerce, and at international conferences across Europe and the United States, part of an ultimately unsuccessful campaign against economic protectionism. By depicting nation-states as volumetric spaces separated by physical barriers, the TWM contributed significantly to the idea of the ‘wall’ as an economic and geopolitical division.

Citation

Heffernan, M., & Thorpe, B. J. (2018). 'The map that would save Europe': Clive Morrison-Bell, the Tariff Walls Map, and the politics of cartographic display. Journal of Historical Geography, 60, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2017.11.010

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 30, 2017
Online Publication Date Jan 8, 2018
Publication Date Apr 1, 2018
Deposit Date Dec 18, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Journal of Historical Geography
Print ISSN 0305-7488
Electronic ISSN 0305-7488
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 60
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2017.11.010
Keywords Clive Morrison-Bell; European cartography; free trade; protectionism; tariff reform
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/962137
Publisher URL https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305748817300981

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