economy prospered under embedded liberalism, with growth more rapid than before or since, yet the system was to break down in the 1970s. Ruggie's work on embedded liberalism rebutted hegemonic stability theory (the notion that a hegemon is necessary to sustain multilateral cooperation) by arguing that the international order was not just maintained through material power, but "with legitimate social purpose." Previous systems Embedded markets: all periods up to 1834 Karl Polanyi argues that until the rise of 19th-century liberalism markets, where they had existed at all, were always and everywhere embedded in society, subject to various social, religious and political controls. The forms of these controls varied widely, for example in India occupations were for centuries determined by caste, rather than market forces. During the Middle Ages, physical markets in Europe were generally heavily regulated, with many towns only permitting larger markets (then known as fayres) to open once or twice a year. Polanyi explicitly refutes Adam Smith's statement that natural man has a "propensity to barter, truck and exchange", arguing that anthropology and economic history shows that until the 19th century markets had only a marginal role in the economy, with by far the most important methods governing the distribution of resources being reciprocal gift giving, centralised redistribution and autarky (self-sufficient households). While Polanyi concedes that European society was beginning to develop towards modern capitalism from as early as the 14th century, especially after the Glorious Revolution and the commencement of the Industrial Revolution, he contends that it was not until 1834 that the establishment of truly free markets became possible. Polanyi calls this disembedding of markets from society a "singular departure" from anything that had happened before in human history. Prior to the 19th century, international trade was very low in proportion to global GDP. Classical liberalism: disembedded markets, 1834–1930s According to Polanyi, a key event of 1834 which allowed the formation of free markets to take place in Great Britain (the worlds foremost economy at the time) was the abolition of outdoor relief which followed the seizure of political power by the middle classes in 1832. With the unemployed poor unable to get any form of financial help except by entering workhouses and with workhouses made much more oppressive than they had been before, the unemployed would tend to go to any lengths to obtain work, which established a free market in labour. Polanyi concedes that