International commerce

“ Macara, in the passage I have quoted from his report, said of the interdependence of our different home industries will necessarily be found to exist among the industries engaged in international commerce, and we may, in the not-distant future, see the industries of different nations arranging their affairs in a spirit of peace and amity as nations as a whole have begun to do. ”

“ A second general cause accounting for the world’s progress in commerce is political—the commercial policy followed by the leading nations of the world. Up to the nineteenth century, practically every country strove to promote its trade, navigation interests, and its power as a nation by means of the mercantile system,—a system of strict and detailed regulation of foreign trade by means of tariffs and navigation laws. Each country strove to determine the nature of its international trade, and endeavored to carry on its commerce in its own ships. ”

“ It is in America's economic and national security interests to promote commerce by strengthening our relationships with our trading partners, vigorously enforcing our Nation's trade laws, improving the overall conditions for competition and trade, and ensuring the strength of our manufacturing and defense industrial bases. For many years, the United States has not obtained the full scope of benefits anticipated under a number of international trade agreements or from participating in the World Trade Organization. ”

“ Our commerce is rapidly increasing, and is extending more widely the circle of international exchanges. Great as has been the increase of our imports during the past year, our exports of domestic products sold in foreign markets have been still greater. ”

“ Foreign Trade.—The effects of the war on industry and commerce will be complicated and far reaching. The British and German Empires together transact about two-fifths of the international trade of the world, the British Empire doing over a quarter and Germany almost exactly an eighth. Between them they own over half the merchant shipping of the world. ”

“ A wholly unnatural state of things has gradually arisen in the international relations of the several nations. The relations between nation and nation multiply in the measure that the production of goods increases; that, thanks to improved transportation, the exchange of this mass of merchandise is facilitated; and that the economic and scientific achievements of each become the public possession of all. Treaties of commerce are concluded ”

“ As time went on the area of trade widened until it covered whole countries, and finally expanded into international trade or commerce between different countries. |Inventions which have helped commerce to grow.| This widening kept step with improvements in the methods of transportation from pack-horse to wagon, from wagon to railroad, and from sailing vessel to steamship. The expansion of trade was also aided by the growth of strong governments which protected the trader and made the paths of commerce safe. ”

“ On the other hand, there are imports so entirely of foreign origin, and so free from considerations of competition with domestic industry, that a large revenue may be raised upon them in the custom-house, without disturbing the freedom or equity of international trade. ”

“ As we observe World Trade Week, 1996, let us strive to give our Nation's exporters every opportunity to sell products freely and fairly and help our companies to meet the challenge of exploring markets abroad. Their efforts to maintain efficient, high-quality production and to promote American goods and services to an international clientele will lead to a stronger economy and a brighter future for us all. ”

“ The people of a nation have it within their power to advance the interests of their foreign commerce in two ways: one by intelligent legislation at home, and the other by intelligent diplomacy abroad. The shipment of merchandise from one country to another means to the selling nation a foreign market for the raw material, the employment of labor to the extent of from thirty to ninety per cent. ”

“ I disagree with both these extremes. I hold that a properly adjusted competition between home and foreign products is the best gauge by which to regulate international trade. Duties should be so high that our manufacturers can fairly compete with the foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to drive out the foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the trade, and regulate the price as they please. ”

“ A consistent foreign policy, undoubtedly to be formulated and pursued by our able Secretaries of State and Commerce, will be of great service in relation to foreign trade and for our general prosperity.
To the intelligent sympathy of the country at large and the coöperation of the Government must be added the eager purpose of the manufacturer, and the interest of young men who will make of export trade their chosen field of labor. ”

“ Putting the issue roughly, but with substantial truth, the generally accepted image of international trade is one in which a number of trading communities, as, for instance, the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Japan, etc., are engaged in striving, each to win for itself, and at the expense of the others, the largest possible share of a strictly limited objective—the world market. ”

“ Despite the high volume of our international trade, we still are far from matching the international sales efforts of our leading competitors. Only ten percent of our firms export, and only seven percent of our gross national produce finds its way into foreign markets-less than half the percentage of our major trading partners. ”

“ A danger to foreign trade is that our exports might conceivably be limited to certain quarters, and might thus rest upon a frail and shifting foundation. Fortunately, however, this is not so, for our commerce is being built upon the prosperity of the whole world. ”

“ Indeed, the only possible way in which all nations can share in the thrift and enterprise and improvements of each other, is through mutual international exchanges; and when each nation sees to it that it have a few commodities at least for which there is a strong demand among foreigners, and in the production of which themselves have a strong superiority, it may rest assured that it buys all it buys from abroad, gold included, at the cheapest rate to itself, and shares a part of the prosperity of every nation with which it trades. ”

“ Manufactures, as in a small bulk they frequently contain a great value, and can upon that account be transported at less expense from one country to another than most parts of rude produce, are, in almost all countries, the principal support of foreign trade. In countries, besides, less extensive, and less favourably circumstanced for inferior commerce than China, they generally require the support of foreign trade. ”

“ The United States is firmly linked with other nations in the global economy by mutually beneficial international trade. Exports now account for more than 16 percent of the total value of all goods produced in this country. ”

“ The vulgar theory disregards this benefit, and deems the advantage of commerce to reside in the exports: as if not what a country obtains, but what it parts with, by its foreign trade, was supposed to constitute the gain to it. An extended market for its produce—an abundant consumption for its goods—a vent for its surplus—are the phrases by which it has been customary to designate the uses and recommendations of commerce with foreign countries. ”

“ An unrestrained intercourse between the States themselves will advance the trade of each, by an interchange of their respective productions, not only for the supply of reciprocal wants at home, but for exportation to foreign markets. The veins of commerce in every part will be replenished, and will acquire additional motion and vigor from a free circulation of the commodities of every part. ”

“ So far as world or international trade is rightly presented as a competitive process, that competition takes place, not between America, Britain, Germany, but between a number of separate American, British, German firms. ”

“ The subject of foreign exchange should be familiar, the fluctuations having an important bearing on purchasing power and trade, while exchange itself is dependent on foreign trade conditions, being an index of international transactions. ”

“ We are told that it is the common interest of the two nations to open the markets of the world to their commerce, and, by implication, to prevent, wherever possible, the entire or partial closing of any of them. ”

“ There are thus only a dozen or so merchants in the world, and their business being supervised by the international council, a simple system of book accounts serves perfectly to regulate their dealings. Customs duties of every sort are of course superfluous. A nation simply does not import what its government does not think requisite for the general interest. Each nation has a bureau of foreign exchange, which manages its trading. ”

“ I shall now give a short sketch of the general principles upon which a system of foreign trade may be established and preserved as long as possible, and of the methods by which it may be again recovered, when, from the natural advantages and superior ability of administration in rival nations, (not from vices at home) a people have lost for a time every advantage they used to draw from their foreign commerce. ”

“ We think nowadays that the resources of a state depend upon the prosperity of the people, no matter whether this prosperity comes from agriculture or from manufactures, 167from internal trade or from foreign trade. Statesmen, however, of the period under discussion, set a peculiarly high value on foreign commerce, and regarded it as a more important branch of industry than any other. ”

“ The foreign trade of all civilized nations is now becoming only an extended home trade; all the old ways of commerce are changed or changing, creating amongst all nations a common interest in the welfare of each other. ”

“ The tremendous growth of the export trade of the United States has already made that trade a very real factor in the industrial and commercial prosperity of the country. With the development of our industries the foreign commerce of the United States must rapidly become a still more essential factor in its economic welfare. ”

“ It is in this field that diplomacy joins hands with commerce and industry, for modern diplomacy is based upon equal trading rights and trade extension. The foreign minister or secretary of state of to-day is judged by his people upon the success or failure of his policy as it affects the export trade of his country at the moment, or in its guarantees for the future. ”

“ The world is entering upon the twentieth century with the nations of the earth bound to each other by much closer relations than existed a hundred years ago, and chief among the forces that draw the countries of the world together is commerce. It is commerce, more than anything else, that has brought about the existing organization of industry in which each nation is dependent upon every other. ”

“ American business interests are engaged in the work of building an international business structure. American industry, directed from the United States, exploiting foreign resources for American profit, and financed by American institutions, is gaining a footing in Latin America, in Europe and Asia. ”

“ On this supposition, the foreign demand for the productions of the country is increased; which necessarily alters the international values to its advantage, and to the disadvantage of foreign countries, who, therefore, though they participate in the benefit of the new product, must purchase that benefit by paying for all the other productions of the country at a dearer rate than before. ”

“ That foreign commerce is eminently conducive to the wealth and prosperity of a country, by enabling it to import the commodities for the production of which the soil, climate, capital, and industry of other countries are best calculated, and to export in payment those articles for which its own situation is better adapted. ”

“ In order, however, that the people of the respective countries should actually derive this advantage or any advantage from foreign exchange, it would be necessary that the exchanges should be carried on in the general interest for the purpose of giving the people at large the benefit of them, as is done at the present day, when foreign commerce, like other economic undertakings, is carried on by the governments of the several countries. ”

“ In what measure the need of individual countries to obtain materials of production from other lands and to find new markets for their own products is responsible for the growth of international dependence. ”

“ Every successful commercial nation has followed that policy. The two peoples that have been most successful in developing foreign commerce in the last half century are the English and the Germans. In the case of both the most prominent factor in their success has been the acquisition or creation of business enterprises abroad. ”

“ It follows logically and necessarily from all this, that what a nation purchases by its exports, it purchases by its own most efficient Production, and consequently at the cheapest possible rate to itself, and at the highest possible profit to its merchants. Under a decent freedom of international choice and action, of sale and delivery, only those things are ever exported, for the procuring of which a nation possesses decided advantages relatively to other nations, and relatively to its own advantages in producing directly what is received in return ”

“ Other countries showed but a languid desire for the products which were then our staple exports, and we had great need of the foreign wares composing our509 imports. We could not afford even to discriminate against the importation of manufactured goods, with an idea of protecting native manufactures; our manufactures were then so weak that a policy of high protection, to exclude foreign wares, would have caused serious distress to the consumers at home. ”