Against the Tide: An Intellectual History of Free TradeAbout two hundred years ago, largely as a result of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, free trade achieved an intellectual status unrivaled by any other doctrine in the field of economics. What accounts for the success of free trade against then prevailing mercantilist doctrines? And how well has free trade withstood various theoretical attacks that have challenged it since Adam Smith's time? In this readable intellectual history, Douglas Irwin explains how the idea of free trade has endured against the tide of the abundant criticisms that have been leveled against it from the ancient world and Adam Smith's day to the present. An accessible, nontechnical look at one of the most important concepts in the field of economics, Against the Tide will allow the reader to put the ever new guises of protectionist thinking into the context of the past and discover why the idea of free trade has so successfully prevailed over time. |
From inside the book
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... Thought CHAPTER FOUR Physiocracy and Moral Philosophy CHAPTER FIVE Adam Smith's Case for Free Trade CHAPTER SIX Free Trade in Classical Economics PART TWO : Controversies about the ix xi 3 11 26 45 64 75 87 Free Trade Doctrine CHAPTER ...
... thought to concentrate more on ideas and concepts than on individuals and personalities , as well as by a desire to write a book that is both relatively short ( considering the tremendous time span covered herein ) and relatively ...
... thought prior to Adam Smith that an appropriate use of import tariffs and other government trade restrictions was likely to constitute a better economic policy than free trade . Such a view reached an apex in the mercantilist literature ...
... thought may enrich one's knowl- edge of the development and propagation of ideas , but this context is gener- ally not required to assess the quality and durability of economic thought and analysis as logical propositions . One need not ...
... thought — whether political , ideological , or self - interested — is irrelevant in assessing the analytical merits of an economic argument : " The scientific character of a given piece of analysis is independent of the motive for the ...
Contents
Early Foreign Trade Doctrines | 11 |
The English Mercantilist Literature | 26 |
The Emergence of Free Trade Thought | 45 |
Physiocracy and Moral Philosophy | 64 |
Adam Smiths Case for Free Trade | 75 |
Free Trade in Classical Economics | 87 |
Torrens and the Terms of Trade Argument | 101 |
Mill and the Infant Industry Argument | 116 |
Manoilescu and the Wage Differential Argument | 153 |
The Australian Case for Protection | 172 |
The Welfare Economics of Free Trade | 180 |
Keynes and the Macroeconomics of Protection | 189 |
Strategic Trade Policy | 207 |
The Past and Future of Free Trade | 217 |
References | 231 |
253 | |