2.5 — An Intellectual History of Trade III: Better Protectionist Arguments — Readings
Tuesday, October 20, 2020 and Thursday, October 22, 2020
Required Readings:
- Nye, 2003, “The Myth of Free Trade Britain”
- Econtalk: Nye on Wine, War and Trade"
- Lind, 2003, “Free Trade Fallacy”
Optional Readings
Much of my intellectual history serires of lectures comes from Chapters 5-9 of Douglas Irwin’sOne of the best economic historians on trade.
excellent book:
Questions To Help Your Reading
- What were the available means for governments to raise revenues over the last few centuries? How and why did they choose certain policies? (Nye and Irwin papers)
- What is the “American system” described by Lind? How was it supposed to work?
- According to Nye, how were England and France different in their approach to mercantilism? Hint: what were the differences in their internal vs. external markets.
- Also interesting in Nye (more the podcast than the paper), why is/was alcohol such an important good?