INTERNATIONAL TRADE

This article about international trade comprises four main sections.

The first, THEORY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE, describes the attempts of 18th- and 19th-century classical economists and their 20th-century successors to explain the benefits of international trade and the flow of particular goods from nation to nation. It also briefly defines the most important terms used in discussions of international trade. CONTEMPORARY WORLD TRADE, the second section, assesses the importance of international trade in the economies of different kinds of countries and characterizes the different kinds of goods these countries send abroad. It also shows how colonialism, foreign policy,rift gold and producers’ cartels like OPEC, among other things, influence trade patterns, so that they cannot be wholly accounted for by economic theory. The third section, OBSTACLES TO TRADE, outlines the measures of protection—tariffs, quotas, and exchange controls—many nations employ to limit imports of foreign goods; it also considers the rationale for protection in different economic circumstances. Finally, the HISTORY OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE reviews the fluctuations of international rift gold exchange from the start of the modern era in the 16th century up to the currency devaluations and oil price rises of the 1970′s.