International trade

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1758394757

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136209

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Taussig, Frank William http://d-nb.info/gnd/120199459

Title:: International trade

Place of publication:: New York, NY

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: XXI, 425 Seiten; graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part II. Problems of verification

Collection:: Economics Books

COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE AND PROTECTION 179 of the arguments commonly heard in the popular controversy, and particularly those on the supposed effect of protection in raising wages or keeping them high, can be understood and weighed only in the light of the doctrine of comparative advantage.! mn The principle of comparative advantage applies more fully and unequivocally to the United States than to any country whose conditions are known to me. The difference in money wages between the United States and European countries is marked ; the difference in commodity wages, tho not so great, is none the less also marked. Notwithstanding the high wages, constituting an apparent obstacle or handicap for the domestic producer, the United States steadily exports all sorts of commodities, not only agricultural products, but manufactures of various kinds. Evi- dently they could not be exported unless they were sold abroad as cheaply as foreign goods of the same sort are there sold; and that these, the products of highly paid labor, are exported and are sold cheap, is proof that American industry has in them a comparative advantage. There are other goods which, tho not exported, are not imported; goods where the balance of advan- tage is even, so to speak. They are not such as are ruled out of the sphere of international trade once for all, because of great bulk or necessity of production in situ; they might conceivably be imported ; yet in fact they are not imported. These are the products of industries in which American labor is effective, yet not effective to the highest pitch; effective in proportion to the higher range of money wages in the country, but barely in that propor- tion, or less than in that proportion. The explanation of their continued importation lies in the fact that the terms of trade are so favorable to the United States that this country gets the best !In the pages which follow I have made free use of passages from books which [ have already published. Most of the matter thus used for the second time is from the book on Some Aspects of the Tariff Question. The rest is from the essay on Wages and Prices in Relation to International Trade, contained in the volume of collected papers entitled Free Trade, the Tariff, and Reciprocity. I have repeated in part the same language, since it seemed not worth while to put in other words what had already been expressed as well as lay in my power. The reader who may wish for a more detailed exposition, and for further illustration and proof of some conclusions here stated with brevity, is referred to these books. In the present chapter I have tried to put together a summary statement of the outcome of ex- tended inquiries.

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