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• Preface
• Studies In the Theory of International Trade
• Chapter I: English Theories of Foreign Trade, Before Adam Smith: I
• I. Introduction
• II. “ Mercantilism” and “bullionism”
• III. the Balance-of-trade Doctrine
• IV. Reasons For Wanting More Bullion
• V. Employment and the Balance of Trade
• Chapter II: English Theories of Foreign Trade, Before Adam Smith: Ii
• I. Legislative Proposals of Mercantilists
• II. the Collapse of Mercantilist Doctrine
• III. Some Modern Interpretations of English Mercantilism
• Chapter III: The Bullionist Controversies: I. The Inflation Phase
• I. the Participants In the Controversy
• II. the Factual Background
• III. Premium On Bullion As Evidence of Excess Issue: the Bullionist Position
• IV. Qualifications Conceded By the Bullionists
• V. Possible Objections to the Bullionist Position
• VI. the Anti-bullionist Position
• VII. the Balance of Payments Argument
• VIII. the Possibility of Excess Issue By Banks
• IX. Responsibility For the Excess Issue: Bank of England Vs. Country Banks
• X. Responsibility For Excess Issue: the Credit Policy of the Bank of England
• Chapter IV: The Bullionist Controversies: II. The Deflation Phase
• I. the Resumption of Cash Payments
• II. Responsibility of Resumption For the Fall In Prices
• III. the Economic Effect of Changing Price Levels
• IV. Ricardo's Position On the Gold Standard
• V. Reform Without Departure From the Metallic Standard
• VI. Paper Standard Currencies
• Chapter V: English Currency Controversies, 1825–1865
• I. Introduction
• II. the “currency School” -“banking School” Controversy
• III. the “palmer Rule ”
• IV. the Bank Act of 1844
• V. the Possibility of Overissue of Convertible Bank Notes
• VI. the Role of Deposits, Bills of Exchange, and “credit” In the Currency System
• VII. the Technique of Credit Control
• VIII. the Relation Between Bank of England Operations and Specie Movements
• IX. Currency Reform Proposals
• Chapter VI: The International Mechanism Under a Simple Specie Currency
• I. Introductory
• II. the Mechanism According to Hume
• III. an Omitted Factor? Relative Changes In Demand As an Equilibrating Force
• IV. Prices In the Mechanism: the Concept of “price Levels ”
• V. the “terms-of-trade” Concept
• VI. the Prices of “domestic” Commodities
• VII. the Mechanism of Transfer of Unilateral Payments In Some Recent Literature
• VIII. a Graphical Examination of Pigou's Analysis 1
• IX. Some Elaborations On the Basis of Pigou's Analysis
• X. an Alternative Solution
• XI. Types of Disturbance In International Equilibrium
• XII. Specie Movements and Velocity of Money
• XIII. Commodity Flows and Relative Price Levels
• XIV. Exchange Rates
• XV. A Criticism of the Purchasing-power Parity Theory 1
• Chapter VII: The International Mechanism In Relation to Modern Banking Processes
• I. Automatic Vs. Managed Currencies
• II. Primary and Secondary Expansion of Means of Payments
• III. Short-term Loans In the International Mechanism
• IV. Primary and Secondary Expansion In Canada , 1900–13
• V. the International Mechanism and Business Cycles
• Chapter VIII: Gains From Trade: the Doctrine of Comparative Costs
• I. the Nature and Origin of the Doctrine
• II. the Division of the Gain From Trade
• III. Trade In More Than Two Commodities
• IV. Trade Between More Than Two Countries
• V. Transportation Costs
• VI. Increasing and Decreasing Costs
• VII. Prices, Money Costs, and Real Costs
• VIII. Dependence of Comparative Cost Doctrine On a Real-cost Theory of Value
• IX. Differences In Wage Rates In Different Occupations
• X. Variable Proportions of the Factors and International Specialization
• XI. Variable Proportions of the Factor and Comparative Real Costs
• XII. “ Opportunity Cost” Analysis As a Substitute For Real Cost Analysis
• Chapter IX: Gains From Trade: the Maximization of Real Income
• I. “ Mass of Commodities” and “sum of Enjoyments”: Ricardo and Malthus
• II. Reciprocal Demand and the Terms of Trade
• III. Terms of Trade and the Amount of Gain From Trade
• IV. “ Net Benefit” In International Trade: Marshall
• V. Total Net Utility Derived From International Trade: Edgeworth
• VI. the Gain From Trade Measured In Money
• Appendix: a Note On the Scope and Method of the Theory of International Trade

II. “Mercantilism” and “Bullionism”

In the English economic literature prior to Adam Smith, the most pervasive and the most emphasized doctrine is the importance of having an excess of exports over imports. To this doctrine and the trade regulations which it inspired, Adam Smith, following the usage of some of the Physiocrats,1 gave the name of the “commercial” or “mercantile” system, which later became, with the aid of the Germans, the now familiar “mercantilism.” 2 Many writers, however, assign “mercantilism” only to the period after about 1620, and distinguish with varying degrees of emphasis between the “bullionist” doctrines of the earlier period and the “balance-of-trade” doctrines of the later period. The grounds most commonly given for distinguishing between the two periods are as follows: (1) that, before 1620, stress was put on the importance of a favorable balance in each transaction of each merchant, whereas in the later period the emphasis was on the aggregate or national balance of trade; (2) that, before 1620, concern about the state of the individual balances was due to anxiety that the country's stock of bullion be not reduced, whereas in the later period there was anxiety that it be increased; (3) that, before 1620, the chief economic objective of trade policy was to protect the national currency against exchange depreciation, whereas after 1620 this was a minor objective, if a matter of concern at all; (4) that, in the early period, the means advocated and employed to carry out the objectives of the prevailing trade policy were close regulation of the transactions of particular individuals in the exchange market and in coin and bullion, while in the later period the policy recommended and put into practice was to seek the objective of a greater stock of bullion indirectly by means of regulation of trade rather than directly through restrictions on exchange transactions and on the export of coin and bullion.

The actual course of official policy seems to give no strong support to this chronological contrast between the bullionist and the balance-of-trade doctrines. In the earlier period, it is true, regulation of the foreign trade and exchange transactions of the merchants had been stricter and more detailed than it subsequently became. But the outstanding changes in legislation and in administrative practice extended over a long period, and all of any importance occurred long before 1620 or did not occur until long after. The institution of the Staple, which served as an instrument of regulation of individual transactions, finally expired with the loss of Calais in 1558, although it had already been moribund. The Statutes of Employment, requiring foreign merchants to pay for the English commodities which they bought, in part at least, in coin or bullion, had become inoperative long before the end of the sixteenth century. The Royal Exchanger, with his control over exchange transactions, went out of existence practically, if not legally, when Burleigh, in the reign of Elizabeth, refrained from exercising his prerogative of nominating the holder of the office, although Charles I attempted unsuccessfully to revive the institution as late as 1628. The restrictions on the export of coin and bullion had been relaxed during the reign of Elizabeth. They were more strictly enforced, as far as gold was concerned, in the reign of James I, in accordance with a proclamation of 1603, but even stricter regulations were laid down by Charles I in 1628, and it was not until 1663 that gold and silver bullion and foreign coin could be freely exported, and not until 1819 that English coin or bullion derived therefrom could be legally exported. In other words, the “bullionist” regulations were either repealed or had become obsolete long before 1620, or persisted and even were strengthened long after 1620. Prohibitions and customs duties on imports and exports imposed for trade regulative purposes originated centuries before 1620, and although the customs system was revised during the reign of James I, and again by Walpole in the 1720's, in order that it might more effectively serve the purpose of procuring a favorable balance of trade, it continued until late in the nineteenth century to be a medley of provisions of miscellaneous character serving in unascertainable proportions the largely contradictory purposes of fiscal needs, trade regulation, special privileges to favored individuals or groups, and foreign diplomacy.

If, however, the dividing line be set at about 1560, instead of about 1620, the contrast may be made with respect to actual trade regulation that such devices as the Staple, the Royal Exchanger, and the Statutes of Employment had been important in the first period, and were repealed or permitted to become inoperative in the later stage. For the earlier period also, it can be said that there was much more concern about the menace to the national stock of bullion from the operations of brokers and merchants in paper exchange than there was in the later period, and on this question 1620 serves fairly well as the approximate date at which doctrinal controversy cleared away many of the older illusions about the consequences of unregulated exchange transactions. No attempt will be made here to examine the bullionist reasoning with respect to the exchanges, of which an excellent summary has been given by Tawney.3 In the controversy over the exchanges at the beginning of the seventeenth century, the new views which were expounded chiefly by Misselden and Mun won a definitive victory over the old views as presented by Malynes and Milles, and in the later literature a spokesman for the older views is only rarely to be encountered. Perhaps for the first time, a matter of economic policy was made the occasion for a war of tracts, and the tracts seem, moreover, to have exerted an immediate and traceable influence on government policy. But commentators who have not explored the earlier literature nor examined carefully the later literature have applied to the entire contents of these tracts what was true only, if at all, of their arguments with respect to paper exchanges, and have attributed to Misselden and Mun priority with respect to doctrines which were already old and established and to Malynes and Milles final utterance of doctrines which still had a long life to live.

[1]Cf. Oncken, article on Quesnay, Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaft, 2d ed., 1901, VI, 280.

[2]If Adam Smith intended the name to be used as a contrast to the physiocratic system, he had considerable justification. Just as the physiocrats claimed that agriculture alone (or extractive industry alone) was productive, so many of the English mercantilists claimed that foreign trade was the only source of wealth, and many of them, while not taking so extreme a position, arranged activities in the order of their contribution to the wealth of the country with foreign trade in the first rank.

[3]In his Introduction to his reprint of Thomas Wilson, A discourse upon usury [1572], 1925, pp. 60–86; 134–69. Cf. also E.R.A. Seligman, article on the Bullionists, Encyclopaedia of social sciences, III (1930), 60–64.