Why was Britain the first country to opt for unilateral free trade 150 years ago? On 16 May 1846, the House of Commons voted to abolish tariff protection for agriculture - the famous 'repeal of the Corn Laws'. Britain then adhered to her free trade policy despite both her relative economic decline and the protectionist policies of her leading trade rivals, the USA and Germany.
This four volume set examines and explains the contentious issues surrounding the policy shift to free trade and the subsequent persistence of that policy. This set provides a comprehensive collection of articles...

Has America always been the champion of free trade? Debates about free trade and protection are one of the dominant features of 19th century economic discourse. The writings of the British classical economists, in particular, have been the subject of extensive secondary literature. In contrast, the writings of their American counterparts have often been overlooked. This collection seeks to help rectify this, by giving access to an extensive range of 19th-century American writings on trade issues.

Transition Economies and Foreign Trade makes the bold claim to have solved puzzles that have hindered the subject for years. By taking the distortions of the Communist era into consideration, Winiecki has explained the phenomenon of the decline in output and trade, as well as explaining the dual commodity nature of exports in the early transition phase.
The book's intriguing analyses include:
*the legacy of the Communist past upon foreign trade transition
*the reorientation of exports from the East to the West
*trade and exchange rate regimes and their impact upon...