We are especially indebted to Jim Robinson who, in the initial stages of the project when we were wallowing in case studies drawn from disparate times and places, encouraged us to focus on the British Empire and the under-exploited Colonial Blue Book data. We are also indebted to Elhanan Helpman for his encouragement in exploring the relationship between international trade and domestic institutions. We benefited from discussions with Daron Acemoglu, Lee Alston, Magda Bisieda, Kyle Bagwell, Stanley Engerman, James Fenske, Murat Iyigun, Suresh Naidu, Diego Puga, Alan Taylor, and seminar participants at Boulder, CIFAR, LSE, Ryerson, Stanford, Toronto (Law Faculty), Western, the World Bank, UC Davis, and UC San Diego. Trefler gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). All three co-authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, CIFAR Program in Institutions, Organizations, and Growth, Toronto, ON M5G 1Z8. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.