ALEX ROBSON
Abstract: The proposition that international trade in goods and services, factors of production, ideas and cultures increases mutual dependencies, lowers the possibility of international conflict by making it more costly, and allows individual freedom to flourish can be found in the writings of Emeric Cruce, Francois Quesnay, David Hume, Adam Smith, de Montesquieu, John Bright and, more recently, Ludwig von Mises. Richard Cobden, was also a powerful advocate of this idea. Although trade and economic interdependence can contribute to the peaceful resolution of disputes, they are not, by themselves, sufficient to guarantee the absence of war and the reduction of arming, and so they are not sufficient to guarantee the spread of international freedom. But, all else being equal, the gains from international trade—long emphasized by microeconomists as desirable in their own right—are a powerful deterrent against international conflict. And since freedom cannot exist under conditions of conflict or total war, international trade has an important indirect effect on the spread of individual freedom, both within countries and throughout the world.
Abstract: The proposition that international trade in goods and services, factors of production, ideas and cultures increases mutual dependencies, lowers the possibility of international conflict by making it more costly, and allows individual freedom to flourish can be found in the writings of Emeric Cruce, Francois Quesnay, David Hume, Adam Smith, de Montesquieu, John Bright and, more recently, Ludwig von Mises. Richard Cobden, was also a powerful advocate of this idea. Although trade and economic interdependence can contribute to the peaceful resolution of disputes, they are not, by themselves, sufficient to guarantee the absence of war and the reduction of arming, and so they are not sufficient to guarantee the spread of international freedom. But, all else being equal, the gains from international trade—long emphasized by microeconomists as desirable in their own right—are a powerful deterrent against international conflict. And since freedom cannot exist under conditions of conflict or total war, international trade has an important indirect effect on the spread of individual freedom, both within countries and throughout the world.