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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part II. Problems of verification

Collection:: Economics Books

COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE AND PROTECTION 185 comparative advantage in corn growing. This grain is peculiarly adapted to extensive agriculture. It also lends itself readily to the use of machinery; corn can be “cultivated” between the rows by horse power. It is a substitute for root crops, and can be rotated steadily with small-grain crops. It is a direct com- petitor with the sugar-beet for cattle fattening. The advocates of beet raising always lay stress on the value of the beet pulp, the residue at the factory after the juice has been extracted, for cattle feeding. But corn is at least equally valuable for the purpose, and the typical American farmer raises it by agricultural methods which he finds both profitable and congenial. One man can grow forty acres of corn; he can plant only twenty acres of beets, and these he cannot possibly thin and top. In Iowa “the farmers are progressive, successful, and satisfied. In fact, this has been the main obstacle to installing the sugar industry there. The farming class of the state is accustomed to the use of labor-saving imple- ments in the fields.” This passage, taken from a publication of the Department of Agriculture, is one among many of similar tenor, all of which make propaganda for protection to beet sugar, and all are quite innocent of any understanding of the economic principles illustrated by their statement of the facts. In the far West, where most of the beets are grown and most of the beet sugar is made, other factors enter. In two respects, the conditions are peculiarly favorable to beet growing: the climate, and the special advantages of irrigation. Physical causes are pres- ent which serve to give, in part at least, a comparative advantage. The variety of the beet suitable for sugar making flourishes in a cool climate; but it needs plenty of sun. “Abundance of sun- shine is essential to the highest development of sugar in the beet. Other things being equal, it may be said that the richness of the beet will be proportional to the amount — not intensity — of the sunshine.” The cool region of cloudless sky in the arid west meets this condition perfectly. The irrigated regions of Colorado, Utah, [daho, Montana supply just the right combination of climate and moisture : cool temperature, abundant sunshine, moisture exactly as needed, absence of moisture when harmful. California, where

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