s had seen great growth and it only came after they said goodbye to Spanish involvement and opened up their own free trade lines. Free trade as a whole has always been in direct opposition in one way or another to communist, populist, and protectionist policies. There have been wars fought over the idea of the trade. One of the examples is Athens and Sparta. The China and Great Britain Opium Wars have been fought over the idea of free trade. Many liberals in the United States in particular believed that free trade was one of the key components of peace. John Maynard Keynes believes that free trade was great combined with domestic policies that promoted employment. Basically what Keynes meant was that it was a good idea to have free trade as long as it was being used as a way to promote employment in your own country. This way you were giving back to your own people. The fact is that since free trade came about some centuries ago it has been a long standing hot button issue and one that would be certain to continue today as it splits the political parties. Now, the question is, is the free trade benefits all states all the time?
MERCANTILISM AND FREE TRADE 重商主义和自由贸易
Mercantilism is a political and economic system that arose in the 17th and 18th centuries. It purports that a country's economic strength is directly related to the maintenance of a positive balance of trade. In order to remain economically and politically viable, a country must export more than it imports. Such a positive balance of trade, according to mercantilist thought, results in a surplus of gold in the practicing country's treasury. Although not a proponent of mercantilism, noted 18th century Scottish economist Adam Smith (1723-1790) was responsible for coining the term "mercantile system". Mercantilism was in opposition to Smith's concepts of free trade, free enterprise, and the free movement of people and goods. In other words, it went against the precepts of a laissez-faire economy. One of the key assertions of mercantilism is that national wealth will come through the import and accumulation of gold or other precious metals such as silver. Smith was highly critical of this theory of wealth and he clearly understood the class bias in the merchant system that supported it. In fact, Smith expressed great concern about colonialism and the monopoly trade routes instituted by the merchant class, which often worked against the economic interests of the citizenry. Mercantilism as an economic system is generally held in low regard today. Japan, however, with its structural barriers to foreign competition and its discouragement of foreign direct investment has been accused of practicing a late 20th century form of mercantilism. Mercantilism as a historical period has been associated with the rise of a particular form of European capitalism often referred to as merchant capitalism. Mercantilism was also a doctrine advanced by various economic writers of the period, who tended to call for a powerful alliance between merchants and the monarchial system, which was then in decline. The term mercantilism is often used today to describe protectionist trade policies which, when coupled with other government policies, directly or indirectly sub
