Studies in the Theory of International Trade
By Jacob Viner
In this book I first endeavor to trace, in a series of studies of the contemporary source-material, the evolution of the modern “orthodox” theory of international trade, from its beginnings in the revolt against English mercantilism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, through the English currency and tariff controversies of the nineteenth century, to its present-day form. I then proceed to a detailed examination of current controversies in the technical literature centering about important propositions of the classical and neo-classical economists relating to the theory of the mechanism of international trade and the theory of gain from trade. The annual flow of literature in this field has become so great in the last few years, and the claims on my time and energy from other unfortunately unavoidable activities of a quite divergent sort have been so heavy, that the completion of this book and the rendering of full justice to the recent literature have proved to be incompatible objectives. I hereby present my sincere apologies to the substantial number of economists who have in recent years made valuable contributions to the theory of international trade which are here either wholly neglected or treated more summarily than they deserve…. [From the Preface]
First Pub. Date
1937
Publisher
New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers
Pub. Date
1937
Copyright
The text of this edition is under copyright. Picture of Jacob Viner courtesy of the University of Chicago Department of Economics.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
Errata
p. 255, fourth line from bottom of main text: “incomplete” should be “complete.”
p. 293, last line: “lending” should be “receiving.”
p. 329, line 15: “unweighted average ratio” should be “unweighted geometric average ratio.”
p. 341, line 20: “import duties” should be “revenue import duties.”
p. 343, second line from bottom: “imported” and “native” should be transposed.
pp. 344-353: “duties on imports” should be “revenue duties on imports” throughout.
P. 350, line 16: “numerically” should be “algebraically.”
pp. 353, lines 13 and 15: “English and German” should be “German and English.”
p. 304, line 19: “adjusting” should be “disturbing.”
p. 371, line 4: “average ratio” should be “geometric average ratio.”
p. 429, line 13: “with one negligible exception” should be “with only one substantial exception.”
p. 462, line 1: “e” should be “c.”
p. 470, line 1: “(
Om ×
Or) units” should be “(
Om ×
mr) units.”
p. 523, line 8: “productive combination” should be “combination of products.”
p. 539, Chart XII: origin of
E curve should be at 15 on
y axis instead of at 10.
p. 548, footnote 24, lines 18-19: “The slope with respect to
OX of the tangent to
OE at
a” should be “The slope with respect to
OX of the vector
Oa.”
p. 574, line 18: “which E would have been willing to pay” should be “which G would have been willing to pay.”