The Arcades Project - Operi

Connection of the first world exhibition in London in 1851 with the idea of free
trade. [GSa,4]
The world exhibitions have lost much of' their original character. The ent.husiasm
that, in 1851, was felt in the most disparate circles has subsided, and in its place
has come a kind of cool calculation. In 1851, we were living in the era of free
trade . . . . For some decades now, we have witnessed the spread of protectionism
. ... Participation in the exhibition becomes . .. a sort of representation . .. ;
and whereas in 1850 the ruling tenet was that the government need not concern
itself in this affair, the situation today is so far advanced that the government of
each country can be considered a veritable entrepreneur." Julius Lessing, Das
halbe Jahrhundert der Weltausstellungen (Berlin, 1900), pp. 29-30. [GSa,S]
In London, in 1851, "appeared ... the first cast-steel cannon by Krupp. Soon
thereafter, the Prussian minister of war placed an order for more than 200 exemplars
of this model." Julius Lessing, Das halbe lahrhundert der Weltausstellungen
(Berlin, 1900), p. 11. [GSa,6]
"From the same sphere of thought that engendered the great idea of free trade
arose . . . the notion that no one would come away empty-handed-rather, the
contrary-from an exhibition at which he had staked his best so as to be able to
take home the best that other people had to offer . ... This bold conception, in
which the idea for the exhibition originated, was put into action. Within eight
months, everything was finished. 'An absolute wonder that has become a part of
history. ' At the foundation of the entire undertaking, remarkably enough, rests
the principle that such a work must be backed not by the state but by the free
activity of its citizens . ... Originally, two private contractors, the Munday brothers,
offered to build, at their own risk, a palace costing a million marks. But
grander proportions were resolved on, and the necessary funds for guaranteeing
the enterprise, totaling many millions, were subscribed in short order. The great
new thought found a great new form. The engineer Paxton built the Crystal Palace.
In every land rang out the news of something fabulous and unprecedented: a
palace of glass and iron was going to be built, one that would cover eighteen acres.
Not long before this, Paxton had constructed a vaulted roof of glass and iron for
one of the greenhouses at Kew, in which luxuriant palms were growing, and this
achievement gave him the courage to take on the new task. Chosen as a site for the
exhibition was the finest park in London, Hyde Park, which offered in the middle
a wide open meadow, traversed along its shorter axis by an avenue of splendid
elms. But anxious onlookers soon raised a cry of alarm lest these trees be sacrificed
for the sake of a whim. 'Then I shall roof over the trees,' was Paxton's answer, and
he proceeded to design the transept, which, with its semicylindrical vault elevated
112 feet above the ground, . .. accommodated the whole row of elms. It is in the
highest degree remarkable and significant that this Great Exhibition of Londonborn
of modern conceptions of steam power, electricity, and photography, and
modern conceptions of free trade-should at the same time have afforded the