Since the days of Adam Smith, Mercantilism has been a hotly debated issue. Condemned at the end of the 18th century as a "false" system of economic thinking and political practice, it has returned paradoxically to the forefront in regard to issues such as the creation of economic growth in developing countries. This concept is often used in order to depict economic thinking and economic policy in early modern Europe; its meaning and content has been highly debated for over two hundred years. Following on from his 1994 volume Mercantilism - The Shaping of an Economic Language, this new book from Lars Magnusson presents a more synthetic interpretation of Mercantilism not only as a theoretical system, but also as a system of political economy. This book incorporates samples of material from the 1994 publication alongside new material, ordered in a new set of chapters and up-date discussions on mercantilism up to the present day. Tracing the development of a particular political economy of Mercantilism in a period of nascent state making in Western and Continental Europe from the 16th to the 18th century, the book describes how European rulers regarded foreign trade and industrialisation as a means to achieve power and influence amidst international competition over trades and markets. Returning to debates concerning whether Mercantilism was a system of power or of wealth, Magnusson argues that it is in fact was both, and that contemporaries almost without exception saw these goals as interconnected. He also emphasises that Mercantilism was an all-European issue in a time of trade wars and the struggle for international power and recognition. In examining these issues, this book offers an unrivalled modern synthesis of Mercantilist ideas and practices.

The keys to global business success, as taught by a T-shirt's journey The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy is a critically-acclaimed narrative that illuminates the globalization debates and reveals the key factors to success in global business. Tracing a T-shirt's life story from a Texas cotton field to a Chinese factory and back to a U.S. storefront before arriving at the used clothing market in Africa, the book uncovers the political and economic forces at work in the global economy. Along the way, this fascinating exploration addresses a wealth of compelling questions about politics, trade, economics, ethics, and the impact of history on today's business landscape. This new printing of the second edition includes a revised preface and a new epilogue with updates through 2014 on the people, industries, and policies related to the T-shirt's life story. Using a simple, everyday T-shirt as a lens through which to explore the business, economic, moral, and political complexities of globalization in a historical context, Travels encapsulates a number of complex issues into a single identifiable object that will strike a chord with readers as they: Investigate the sources of sustained competitive advantage in different industries Examine the global economic and political forces that explain trade patters between countries Analyze complex moral issues related to globalization and international business Discover the importance of cultural and human elements in international trade This story of a simple product illuminates the many complex issues which businesspeople, policymakers, and global citizens are touched by every day.

First published in 1978. This book provides a simple, systematic, yet rigorous treatment of the key aspects of the pure theory of international trade and distortions. The opening chapter presents the standard two-factor, two-commodity barter model of international trade and a comprehensive treatment of the important properties and relationships. The rest of the book consists of four sections: parts One and Two are devoted to an analysis of factor market imperfections, and Parts Three and Four consider the trade-theoretical consequences of product market imperfections. A concluding chapter presents some generalised theorems. This book would be of interest to students of economics.

This book examines the contemporary production of economic value in today's financial economies. Much of the regulatory response to the global financial crisis has been based on the assumption that curbing the speculative 'excesses' of the financial sphere is a necessary and sufficient condition for restoring a healthy economic system, endowed with real values, as distinct from those produced by financial markets. How, though, can the 'intrinsic' value of goods and services produced in the sphere of the so-called real economy be disentangled from the 'artificial' value engineered within the financial sphere? Examining current projects of international legal regulation, this book questions the regulation of the financial sphere insofar as its excesses are juxtaposed to some notion of economic normality. Given the problem of neatly distinguishing these domains - and so, more generally, between economy and society, and production and social reproduction - it considers the limits of our current conceptualization of value production and measurement, with specific reference to arrangements in the areas of finance, trade and labour. Drawing on a range of innovative work in the social sciences, and attentive to the spatial and temporal connections that make the global economy, as well as the racial, gender and class articulations of the social reproductive field within it, it further asks: what alternative arrangements might be able to affect, and indeed alter, the value-making processes that underlie our current international regulatory framework?

Controlling Capital examines three pressing issues in financial market regulation: the contested status of public regulation, the emergence of 'culture' as a proposed modality of market governance, and the renewed ascendancy of private regulation. In the years immediately following the outbreak of crisis in financial markets, public regulation seemed almost to be attaining a position of command - the robustness and durability of which is explored here in respect of market conduct, European Union capital markets union, and US and EU competition policies. Subsequently there has been a softening of command and a return to public-private co-regulation, positioned within a narrative on culture. The potential and limits of culture as a regulatory resource are unpacked here in respect of occupational and organisational aspects, stakeholder connivance and wider political embeddedness. Lastly the book looks from both appreciative and critical perspectives at private regulation, through financial market associations, arbitration of disputes and, most controversially, market 'policing' by hedge funds. Bringing together a distinguished group of international experts, this book will be a key text for all those concerned with issues arising at the intersection of financial markets, law, culture and governance.

Water scarcity is an increasing problem in many parts of the world, yet conventional supply-side economics and management are insufficient to deal with it. In this book the role of water trading as an instrument of integrated water resources management is explored in depth. It is also shown to be an instrument for conflict resolution, where it may be necessary to reallocate water in the context of increasing scarcity. Recent experiences of implementation in different river basins have shown their potential as instruments for improving allocation. These experiences, however, also show that there are implementation challenges and some limitations to trading that need to be considered. This book explores the various types of water trading formulas through the experience of using them in different parts of the world. The final result is varied because, in most cases, trading is conditioned by the legal and institutional framework in which the transactions are carried out. The role of government and the definition of water rights and licenses are critical for the success of water trading. The book studies the institutional framework and how transactions have been undertaken, drawing some lessons on how trading can improve. It also analyses whether trading has really been a positive instrument to manage scarcity and improve water ecosystems and pollution emission problems in those parts of the world which are most affected. The book concludes by making policy proposals to improve the implementation of water trading.

Against the backdrop of growing anti-globalisation sentiments and increasing fragmentation of the production process across countries, this book addresses how the Indonesian economy should respond and how Indonesia should shape its trade and industrial policies in this new world trade environment. The book introduces evaluation not on tariffs but on new trade instruments such as non-tariff measures (SPS, TBT, export measures and beyond border measures), and looks at industrial policies from a broader perspective such as investment, accessing inputs, labour, services, research and innovation policies. "The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/10.4324/9781315161976, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license."

The World That Trade Created brings to life the history of trade and its actors. In a series of brief, highly readable vignettes, filled with insights and amazing facts about things we tend to take for granted, the authors uncover the deep historical roots of economic globalization. Covering over seven hundred years of history, this book, now in its fourth edition, takes the reader around the world from the history of the opium trade to pirates, to the building of corporations and migration to the New World. The chapters are grouped thematically, each featuring an introductory essay designed to synthesize and elaborate on key themes, both familiar and unfamiliar. It includes ten new essays, on topics ranging from the early modern ivory and slave trades across the Indian Ocean, to the ways in which the availability of new consumer goods helped change work habits in both Europe and East Asia, and from the history of chewing gum to that of rare earth metals. The introductory essays for each chapter, the overall introduction and epilogue, and several of the essays have also been revised and updated. The World That Trade Created continues to be a key resource for anyone teaching world history, world civilization, and the history of international trade.

This title was first published in 2000: United States economic assistance programs in Latin America have been frequently restructured during the course of the past four decades. This book examines the evolution of US aid to the region, describes and explains US aid to the region since 1960. Focus is placed on four successive initiatives, the Alliance of Progress for the 1960s, the New Directions Mandate of the 1970s, the Private Enterprise Initiative of the 1980s and the Democracy Initiative of the 1990s. Empirical examples of actual programs, drawn from primary source documents, are used to illustrate more general propositions. The primary objectives of this study are to describe and explain US assistance policy toward Latin America during the past four decades and account for changes in the aid regime over time. Such assistance is typically linked to either the developmental needs of recipient countries, or the economic interests of transnational corporations.

The year 2015 witnessed significant events in the area of finance, trade and investment, which brought Asia to the centre of the world stage. The Trans-Pacific Partnership reached its basic agreement among the 12 member countries in October; the Chinese Yuan was included into the Special Drawing Rights basket of currencies at the International Monetary Fund in November; the ASEAN Economic Community came into force; and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank was established with the 57 founding members in December. Within and outside the region, there is an urgent need to understand the underlying economic structures that brought about these events, which have global implications. The Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the National University of Singapore launched a series of conferences on 'Evolving Finance, Trade and Investment in Asia' with the aim of strengthening research capacity in Asia to influence regional policymaking. Looking forward, the conference will provide an annual platform for scholars to discuss the latest findings and to disseminate them to business leaders and policymakers. This book contains scholarship presented at the inaugural international conference in September 2015, and was originally published as a special issue of the International Economic Journal.

This title was first published in 2001. This informative volume gives penetrating insight into why multinational enterprises (MNEs) headquartered in Spain invested so heavily in Latin America in the 1990s. This is an invaluable resource for scholars of international political economics, international relations, economics, business and development studies and those with an interest in Spain and Latin America.

South Asia today is among the most unstable regions in the world, riddled by both intra- and inter-state conflict. This book presents a comprehensive technical analysis of the trade-conflict relationship within the region, and explores how South Asia demonstrates underperformance of its potential for economic integration. Using the gravity model framework, the book highlights quantitative estimates of the cost of conflict in terms of loss of trade for South Asia. Other variables representative of political and economic regimes are also included to make the model comprehensive, and the book goes on to discuss how the analysis reveals the overriding significance of the India-Pakistan relationship in the regional landscape. It looks at how the results of the econometric exercise reveal the extent to which a common border, when disputed, becomes a barrier rather than a facilitator to trade and, additionally, the extent to which long standing and persistent conflict can debilitate trade relationships. The book is a useful contribution for students and scholars of South Asian studies and international political economy, and assists in formulating policy to correct the anti-home bias that is evident in trade patterns of the South Asian economies.

This work examines the endeavours of the Arabian Peninsula States - namely the Gulf Cooperation Council member States of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as Jordan and Yemen as prospective GCC members - in establishing national intellectual property protection regimes which both meet their international treaty obligations and are also congruent with their domestic policy objectives. It uses the WTO's TRIPS Agreement of 1995 as the universal benchmark against which the region's laws are assessed. The challenges faced by the States in enforcing their intellectual property laws receive particular attention. Protecting Intellectual Property in the Arabian Peninsula considers the changing nature of the States' intellectual property laws since 1995. It argues that the decade immediately following the TRIPS Agreement was marked by a period of foreign forces shaping or influencing the character of the States' intellectual property legislative regimes, primarily through multilateral or bilateral trade-based agreements. The second and current decade, however, see a significant shift away from foreign influences and a move towards domestic and regional imperatives and initiatives taking over. The work also examines regional initiatives for the protection of traditional knowledge and cultural heritage, as areas of intellectual property which fall outside the parameters of the TRIPS Agreement, but which are of significant concern to the States and other developing countries, and to which they are giving increasing attention in terms of providing proper protection.

An accessible introduction to multimodal contracts of carriage, Multimodal Transport Law works from general principles toward specific, technical problems. Adopting an international approach, it addresses such key topics as: Contracts of carriage Transport documents The parties to a contract of carriage International conventions on the carriage of goods Multimodal situations covered by unimodal conventions Conflict of laws The rules applicable to the individual legs of multimodal contracts of carriage The Rotterdam Rules Providing a close examination of the relevant rules, regulations and case law, this is essential reading for law students, useful for claims handlers and practitioners, and of interest for academics and legislators seeking a better appreciation of multimodal contracts of carriage.

The current value of global trade has reached a staggering annual figure of $6 trillion in merchandise crossing borders. Such prolific global trading has, at the same time, begun to raise fears of pandemics and concerns for global health. Yet, investment in public health infrastructure and disease control was never designed to cope with international trade of this volume and diversity. Indeed, most health systems lag far behind, especially in poor countries. This has created new vulnerabilities for global populations to the introduction and amplification of infection through trade. Public fears have been further heightened by frightening news reports of deadly diseases such as Mad Cow disease and E. Coli. Risky Trade: Infectious Disease in the Era of Global Trade provides a thorough examination of the actual risks posed by disease in the age of globalization. Drawing on the economics of international trade and epidemiology, the author explores the critical health issues arising from the enormous increase in global trade and travel. Issues covered include: c The scale of the problem with particular reference to the Sakai outbreak of E. Coli; c Risks from particular microbes - Enteric and viral infections; Highly infectious agents; Antimicrobial resistance; and, Stealth agents; c Global outbreaks as a result of human travel and trade; c Prevention, surveillance and control; c The future health of global trading. In addition to highlighting the problems, the book also addresses some of the potential benefits the same globalization can bring to epidemic control through surveillance, diagnostics, treatment and investigation. The empirical approach ties together existing descriptions and case studies of epidemics building a comprehensive framework for examining new events and considering historical experience with infectious outbreaks. The volume will be a valuable guide to students, academics, practitioners, and policy makers in the areas of international trade, health economics, epidemiology, international/public health and disease control.

Between the 1930s and the 1950s rural life in Europe underwent profound changes, partly as a result of the Second World War, and partly as a result of changes which had been in progress over many years. This book examines a range of European countries, from Scandinavia to Spain and Ireland to Hungary, during this crucial period, and identifies the common pressures to which they all responded and the features that were unique to individual countries. In particular, it examines the processes of agricultural development over western Europe as a whole, the impact of the war on international trading patterns, the relationships between states and farmers, and the changing identities of rural populations. It presents a bold attempt to write rural history on a European scale, and will be of interest not only to historians and historical geographers, but also to those interested in the historical background to the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union, to which the changes discussed here provided a dramatic prologue.

The study of ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia has a long tradition. What is most striking in these studies is just how difficult it is to generalise about this ethnic group in the region. Whether or not they have been able to identify as Chinese has to a certain extend depended on different processes of social and political engineering, which in turn make them more or less distinct as an ethnic group. In the case of Malaysia, national political schemes such as the affirmative action policy indirectly force the Malaysian ethnic Chinese to conceive of themselves as a coherent collective, and yet, when asked Chinese entrepreneurs in the maintain that despite the affirmative action policy ethnicity is not the a defining deciding factor when it comes to identifying business partners. This book focuses on the consequences of these kinds of policies in the field of inter-ethnic business practices and entrepreneurship in Malaysia within the wider context of the relationship between local, national and global markets. It focuses on the complexities of inter-ethnic relations and in particular, the strong economic position of the ethnic Chinese and their impact on the Malaysian economic scene as well as on the wider Southeast Asian region, underlining the degree to which inter-ethnic relations in Southeast Asia are crucial to understanding the political and economic complexitiescharacteristic of characterizing the region. In turn, it takes small and medium-sized enterprises as case studies, and shows how they are being shaped and in return shape the society in which they constitute a part. In doing so, the book highlights how these companies not only relate to the domestic economy, but also cater to the global economy, and presents a compelling argument for the introduction of a glocalised perspective in international business studies. Ethnic Chinese Entrepreneurship in Malaysia will be welcomed by students and scholars with an interest in Asian studies, political economy, international business studies, inter-ethnic relations and diaspora studies.

The contributors to this volume consider the consequences of Eastern enlargement of the EU for trade and investment in Europe, paying particular attention to the impact of removing technical barriers to trade, the key remaining constraint upon trade flows. The principal impact of enlargement on trade and investment flows will be through access to the Single Market and the removal of non-tariff barriers. Such barriers arise from differences in the way that products are regulated across countries. This volume contains contributions which assess the significance of technical barriers to trade and the potential impact of their removal, based upon detailed analysis of actual trade flows and the results of firm surveys in four Central and Eastern European countries. Enlargement, Trade and Investment is recommended to researchers in the field of international trade and those interested in the issue of the economic impact of enlargement. Scholars teaching about the European Union will also find this volume of great value.

The development of modern biotechnology has varied considerably from country to country. Typically, there are wide technology gaps between developing and industrialised countries and considerable differences in investment and regulatory systems, often creating a need for policy intervention. This innovative book examines the development and evolution of biotechnology in industrialised and developing countries. The author first explores efforts made by policymakers and the leaders in the field to reduce technology gaps, and analyses the development of financial mechanisms and regulatory frameworks to hasten the adoption and diffusion of biotechnology. The second section looks at the relationship between biotechnology and its resource base, biological diversity. The author emphasizes the interdependency between biodiversity and biological R&D in an attempt to simplify the debate on the conservation of biological diversity. The last section focuses on the potential positive and negative impacts of biotechnology and its contribution towards sustaining biodiversity. The Emergence and Growth of Biotechnology will be of great interest to undergraduate and postgraduate economics students interested in the economics of technology, economic development and biotechnology and environmental conservation.

The mood of the international grain market changed remarkably in the decade before this book was originally published in 1986. In the early 1970s, which were years of buoyancy and high prices, the concern was with feeding the starving millions and subsequently, in the United states, with the use of the grain embargo weapon to put pressure on the Soviet Union. In the mid-1980s, after a long period in which the recession kept prices down, the climate was much gloomier. The book considers the state of the major supplier countries and their particular problems. It charts the changes in the market and discusses major issues of international concern. It concludes by surveying prospects for the market.

Every banking crisis, whatever its particular circumstances, has two features in common with every previous one. Each has been preceded by a period of excessive monetary ease, and by ill thought out regulatory changes. For many the recent hiatus in inter-bank lending has been seen as a blip - enormous in size and global in scope, but, nonetheless, a blip. Finance at the Threshold offers a unique perspective from an English economic and monetary historian. In it the author asks: Why did the banks stop lending to one another, and why now? Was it merely a matter of over-loose credit due to the relaxation of traditional prudence, or did global finance find itself at its limits? Have government bail-outs saved the day or merely postponed the problem? Christopher Houghton Budd offers a radical view of the global financial crisis, spanning a wide gamut of current thinking. He argues that we need, above all, to overcome the left-right divide so much taken for granted today, and promote financial literacy to young people. His contribution to the Transformation and Innovation Series claims that global finance has brought us to the limits of what mechanistic economic explanations can capture. New ideas and above all new instruments are needed so that innovation can shift from its dexterous exploitation of inefficiencies and turn its attention instead to fresh initiative. Finance at the Threshold is essential reading for academics and practitioners concerned with financial and economic policy and needing to develop a sense of the history thus understanding the forward prospects for global finance.

First published in 1982, the editors and authors of this book examine the United States' 1973 embargo on the export of soybeans and its effects on U.S.-Japanese relations. Although eventually shipment of soybeans to Japan resumed, the embargo temporarily soured the friendly relations of the two democracies. This book, prepared by a group of Japanese and U.S. scholars, demonstrates how trade relations between the two countries are affected by their internal political situations and by the nature of their respective agricultural industries. U.S.-Japanese Agricultural Trade Relations will be valuable to scholars, policy makers, and others interested in agricultural trade. It should be particularly useful in courses on international trade and on agricultural policy.

How do international negotiations affect domestic politics? Starting in the 1990s, countries throughout Latin America embarked on many and simultaneous negotiations. On the shifting ground of widening and deepening trade agendas and diverse arenas, what factors determined trade politics? This book examines the domestic political dynamics triggered by South-South, North-South and multilateral agendas in Argentina and Chile between 1990 and 2005. Using a much-needed cross-negotiation and cross-country comparative perspectives, and through detailed empirical analyses of several key negotiations, it proposes an explanation that emphasizes the interplay between international negotiations and domestic trade politics, taken as the result of the complex and dynamic interdependencies and interrelations between state and society. Informed by interviews with public officials, businesses and civil society, the analysis reveals that variation in the depth of agendas, the distributional effects and the uncertainty of political outcomes all have important consequences for domestic preference formation, collective action strategies and types of relationships. Given this, the variety of negotiations, when considered separately and comparatively, show that South-South, North-South and multilateral processes promote different patterns of trade politics. In sum, although national specificities and historical legacies are important, the book argues that trade policy comes first in creating domestic politics in Latin America.

This comprehensive and accessible book examines the evolution of the multilateral trade regime in the ever-changing global economic environment, particularly during the WTO era and the ongoing Doha Round. Professor Das explores how the creation of the multilateral trade regime, or the GATT/WTO system, has been fraught with difficulties. He describes the ways, by means of various rounds of negotiations, the multilateral trade regime has constantly adjusted itself to the new realities of the global economy. One glance at the recent history indicates that the evolution of the multilateral trade regime was far from even-handed and steady. The GATT/WTO system was repeatedly pushed to the brink of utter and ignominious disaster. Yet, as the author illustrates, the participating economies persevered. Consequently, the fabric of multilateral trade regime is stronger, its foundation deeper and its framework wider now than it was a generation ago. Unlike the GATT era, membership of the present trade regime is close to universal. The author concludes that of the two phases, the latter has turned out to be the more arduous, intricate and complex phase of evolution. Students and scholars of economics, international trade, international political economy and international relations will find this study of great interest. The definitions and explanations of terminology and advanced concepts make the book accessible to those without an extensive economic background.

In spite of many years of negotiation on trade liberalization, progress seems to have stalled. This book explores why resistance to further market liberalization seems so strong, given that the benefits are seen to outweigh the costs. This volume argues that in order to understand the slow progress of World Trade Organization negotiations, we need to take into consideration the 'intermestic' character of trade politics, that is, the way in which international and domestic aspects of politics and policies have been woven together and become inextricably related to each other. This is a general trend in our globalizing world, and one that is most pronounced in the case of trade politics and policy. International Trade Negotiations and Domestic Politics therefore presents an in-depth analysis of institutions, ideas, interests and actors in the interplay between international trade negotiations and national negotiating positions. At the international level the authors focus on the multilateral negotiations within the World Trade Organization, together with the plurilateral and bilateral negotiations on free trade agreements. At the regional and domestic level they analyze the trade politics and policies of two established powers, the European Union and the USA; two rising powers, China and India; and a small industrialized country with an open economy, Norway.