National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade [antikvár]

Preface to the Expanded EditionThe suggestion to republish a little book that appeared more than thirty-five years ago and has been long out of print is uncommonly flattering to the book's author. But at the same time it presents him with a problem of conscience. It is only too clear that in such a long time not only has scholarship as such gone forward, but also the opinions of the author himself, even if fundamentally unchanged, have been altered in many details.To take this development into account would be possible only if the author could bring himself to write a completely new book probably three or four times as big; but for this he lacks the time, the strength, andto speak franklythe inclination.These sentences are from the foreword to the second edition of Erwin Panofsky's classic Idea: A Concept in Art Theory (New York: Harper & Row, 1924, i960, 1968) and they are nicely and exactlyto the number of yearsapplicable to the present republishing venture. Any "updating" of this old essay of mine would indeed be a formidable undertaking. My main object of study was the politics of foreign trade, the possibility of using trade as a means of political pressure and leverage. During the first two decades of the postwar period, foreign aid and capital flows largely replaced trade as the principal arena for the political element in international economic relations.' More recently, with the negotiations at the United Nations Conferences on Trade and Development and the discussions about the New International Economic Order, trade and the institutional framework within which it is carried11 have dealt with the politics of foreign aid in two articles which maintain, I believe, a certain continuity with the analysis of the present book: "The Stability of Neutralism" (1964) and "Foreign Aid: A Critique and a Proposal" (with Richard M. Bird, 1968), both reprinted in my A Bias for Hope: Essays on Development and Latin America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971).[V]PrefaceTJLhis essay was written in 1^42 at the University of California, Berkeley, under a fellowship granted by the Rockefeller Foundation. It is an outgrowth of my collaboration with the Trade Regulation Project. Professor J. B. Condliffe directed this research project, and to him I owe my deepest gratitude, first, for enabling me to come from France to the United States in 1941, and, then, for giving me, after my arrival, the benefit of his advice and constant encouragement. I am also very greatly indebted to Professor Howard S. Ellis for his detailed criticism and numerous suggestions with respect to the content and form which this essay has taken. At successive stages of the work I was greatly helped by numerous discussions with my co-workers of the Trade Regulation Project, Dr. Alexander Gerschenkron, Dr. Peter Franck, and Mr. Alexander Stevenson. Mr. Stevenson is also responsible for many stylistic improvements. A trip to the Middle West and the East late in 1^42 gave me an opportunity to place my manuscript before persons in a number of universities, and I wish to express my thanks to all those who took time to discuss my ideas with me. Finally, I am indebted to Dr. Fausto M. Ricci for calculating the indices and tables in Part 2. Chapter VII appeared in a slightly altered form, but under the same title, in the "Quarterly Journal of Economics" Volume LVII (August, 1943).Albert O. Hirschman1945