Jr. Prof. Megan Maruschke's recent publication is titled "Spatial Frameworks of Comparison: Planning Western India’s Free Ports and Free Trade Zones, 1830s–1980s" and was recently published in the last edition of the journal Global Intellectual History.
This article proposes studying the spatial frameworks of comparison in free port and free zone planning. Using reports from ports, ministries, and chambers of commerce, this article analyses these shifting frameworks for comparison in Bombay’s port planning from the 1830s to the 1980s. Port planners, merchants, and ministry experts placed these ports and zones within shifting spatial frameworks, which determined which zones or ports could and could not be compared. These comparisons informed policy changes. Uncovering India’s free port and zone debates reveals the plurality of concepts and policy models, not a single original zone that has spread around the world. This article asks how these actors understood the world, its changing spatial formats, and the role of free ports or free zones in these constellations.