ECONOMISTS and other intellectuals have debated for centuries the merits of free trade as an economic policy. The purpose of this book is to provide a history of the free trade doctrine, first tracing the idea up to Adam Smith and the classical economists, and then examining the leading controversies about theoretical objections to free trade since that time. I have been guided by George Stigler’s plea for the history of economic thought to concentrate more on ideas and concepts than on individuals and personalities, as well as by a desire to write a book that is both relatively short (considering the tremendous time span covered herein) and relatively accessible to non-economists (despite the sole focus on theoretical considerations in the second half).
In this effort I have been aided by numerous friends and colleagues, and I am pleased to record my appreciation to them. I am indebted to Jagdish Bhagwati, not only for his comments on part of this manuscript, but for several years of encouragement and discussion about the subject matter of this book. John Chipman provided generous assistance in the form of several careful readings of manuscript drafts. I also wish to thank others who graciously took the time to comment upon various sections of the book: Max Corden, Donald Dewey, Barry Eichengreen, Ronald Findlay, Gene Grossman, Adam Klug, Anne Krueger, and Arvind Panagariya. Their advice is greatly appreciated. Claire Friedland also gets my thanks for helping track down prints and photographs of various economists.
I gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation through a grant to the Center for the Study of the Economy and the State (with a tip of the hat to its director, Sam Peltzman). Financial support has also been provided by the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. Among other things, this funding enabled me to partake of Herbert Somerton Foxwell’s priceless bequest to subsequent generations of scholars, the Goldsmiths’s Library of Economic Literature at the University of London.
Finally, I thank my wife Marjorie for her exemplary patience during the long gestation of this book and my daughter Ellen for not accidentally deleting any of my files in the search for computer games, and my daughter Katie for being a welcome addition as this book was being completed.