Unequal exchange and the evolution of the world system : reconsidering the impact of trade on North-South relations

## Unequal Exchange and the World System Already James Steuart, according to Robinson and Eatwell (1973, p. 7) the 'last Mercantilist', had shrewedly hinted to his readers that sagacious traders like the British: will be able to profit from many circumstances, which would infallibly turn to the disadvantage of others less expert in commerce, with whom she [Britain] trades; and in expectation of favourable revolutions, she ought not rashly, nor because of small inconveniences, to renounce trading . . . especially if luxury should appear there to be on the growing hand. (Steuart, 1966, pp. 435f.) Keynes's dictum on Shakespeare thus also applies to Smith: England had Smith when it could afford him (cf. Keynes, 1965, p. 154). Practical policy, in Britain and elsewhere, however, has never been really a policy of free and unhampered trade. Already during the last century the gap between theory and economic policy, which Amin called the 'present crisis of economic "science"' (Amin, 1981, p. 178), existed. Due to exceptional circumstances like its 'crushing superiority and the de facto monopoly enjoyed by its industry all through the nineteenth century ', Emmanuel (1972, p. xiv) concedes a period of half a century of free trade in its pure form and another quartercentury in a much modified form to England. This generosity must be doubted, if one looks at history. As List observed, tariff reductions in Britain followed more or less the rules of the Dutch dyke-builders: high dykes where high floods are likely and low ones for harmless places. Thus the reductions of tariffs were always effected in a way to still protect domestic producers. In the case of silk-products, List points out (1920, p. 481), the reduced rates still amounted to 50-70 per centa typical example of selective British liberalism. The only exception from the rule was the successful campaign against the Corn Laws where free trade was used as a tool against landed interests and to push down the costs oflabour, very much in the way free imports of raw materials are nowadays used to keep prices of inputs down. 'Apart from this historical circumstance the British capitalist class was never, at bottom, any more convinced than the landlords were of the benefits of free trade' (Emmanuel, 1972, p. xxxvii). Since other countries were more protectionist than the British, Emmanuel estimates the interruption of the age-old practice of protectionism not to have endured for more than about three decades. Even in that period, however, real 'free' trade never matched the textbook perception. Front Matter....Pages i-ix An Introduction to Unfashionable Economics....Pages 1-12 Early Thoughts on Inequality and Domination by Trade....Pages 13-30 Emmanuel’s Approach to Unequal Exchange....Pages 31-50 Critiques and Further Elaborations of Emmanuel’s Approach....Pages 51-72 Oscar Braun’s Approach to Unequal Exchange....Pages 73-91 Samir Amin and Other Contributions to the Debate....Pages 92-111 Specialisation and Dependence: A New Approach....Pages 112-133 Unequal Exchange — A Stage in the Evolution of the World System....Pages 134-157 OPEC — The Making and Breaking of ‘Third World Economic Power’....Pages 158-173 Where Does Unequal Exchange Occur?....Pages 174-192 Problems of Measuring Unequal Exchange and the Specificity of Goods....Pages 193-212 Unequal Exchange and the Redeployment of Industries....Pages 213-240 The Necessity of Realisation and the Role of the Central State as Limiting Factors to the Spread of Unequal Exchange....Pages 241-257 Structural Changes in the World Economy: Conclusions and Prospects....Pages 258-276 Back Matter....Pages 277-301