Chapter 4 provides a historical sociology of the postwar trading system, tracing the shift from embedded liberal multilateralism (Bretton Woods, GATT-era compromise) to neoliberal trade globalization institutionalized through the WTO, NAFTA, and related legal architectures. Using Gramsci’s concept of historic blocs, the chapter explains how corporate and state elites assembled coalitions that normalized market primacy, expanded investor rights, and narrowed democratic policy space—especially for labor protections, environmental regulation, and developmental strategies in the Global South. The chapter highlights how trade liberalization intertwined with financialization and U.S. hegemonic power, even as it generated contradictions, from trade deficits and deindustrialization to legitimacy crises, that later fueled backlash. By connecting institutional change to bloc formation and corporate dominance, the chapter establishes the structural groundwork for the book’s later analysis of reactionary countermovements and authoritarian trade governance.