Description
Book SynopsisMainstream trade and commercial policy theories with lineage traced back to Smith, Ricardo, Torrens, and Mill have often trivialised the process of development as static resource allocation. Peter Sai-wing Ho re-interprets the works of these classical economists and those of the so-called 'protectionists' Hamilton, List, Manoïlesco, Prebisch, Myrdal, and Singer to offer an alternative framework that considers the role of trade, foreign investment, and technology in engendering uneven development. The author reveals that these protectionists actually offered sophisticated prescriptions involving non-trade instruments, interweaving import-substitution with export-promotion, and emphasising indigenous technological-capability cultivation.
This controversial book offers a unique approach to rethinking the trade and development literature and will therefore strongly appeal to researchers, academics, and students of trade and development as well as those involved in the history of economic thought.
Table of ContentsContents: Preface 1. Introduction Part I: Re-Interpreting Classical Trade Theories in a Simple Framework of Capitalist Development 2. The Mainstream Interpretation of Classical Trade Theories 3. Smith and Ricardo: Trade and Uneven Development 4. Torrens: Trade, Uneven Development, Commercial Reciprocity and Colonisation 5. Mill: Trade, Uneven Development, and Perpetual Overflow of Capital from England Part II: Re-Examining ‘Trade Protection’ Arguments from Perspectives of Development 6. The Mainstream Conception of Spontaneous Structural Changes and its Formulation of the Theory of Commercial Policy 7. Hamilton: Promoting Development of America through a Multitude of Policy Instruments 8. List: Unleashing Productive Powers and Reciprocal Effects through a Multitude of Policy Instruments 9. Manoïlesco: Supporting the Expansion of Superior Productive Sectors through Tariffs or Subventions 10. Prebisch: Infusing Dynamism into Development Processes via Raising Investment and Technological Densities, and IS and EP Industrialisation 11. Mrydal: Harnessing Spread, While Curtailing Backwash, Effects with a Multitude of Policy Actions 12. Singer: Correcting Maldistribution of Gains from Progress by Tackling International Technological Dualism 13. Some Concluding Thoughts Bibliography Index
