Chapter 2 develops the book’s theoretical framework by integrating Polanyi’s double movement, Gramsci’s hegemony/historic blocs, and cultural political economy to reinterpret trade regimes as projects of power and meaning, not neutral coordination mechanisms. It argues that trade institutions encode hierarchies of class, race, gender, and nation, and that “protection” is a contested signifier that can anchor solidaristic re-embedding of markets or exclusionary authoritarianism. The chapter situates neoliberalism as a politically organized, culturally resonant project that “encased” markets through class power, law, institutions, and expert discourse—often insulating trade governance from democratic accountability. By connecting imperialism debates, unequal exchange, and the cultural boundaries of belonging, the chapter equips the reader to analyze how trade becomes a terrain of world-making: where blocs form, legitimacy is produced, and crises are narrated into competing futures.