Trade centers on the exchange of goods and/or services. Exchanges may take place between two parties (bilateral trade) or amongst more than two parties (multilateral trade). In its original form trade necessarily used barter and the exchange of goods and services of a recognized equal value desirable to both parties. Modern traders generally negotiate through the use of a medium of exchange, i.e. money, and rarely through barter: as a result one can separate buying and earning from selling. The invention of money (and subsequently of credit, paper money and non-physical money) greatly simplified and promoted the development of trade.Most economists accept the non-obvious theory that trade benefits both parties, and reject the notion that all exchange must exploit one party. Trade exists largely because differences exist in the cost of production of some tradable commodity in different locations. As such, exchange at market prices between locations benefits both.
Empirical evidence for the success of trade can emerge when contrasting countries such as South Korea, which has adopted largely unfettered free-trade, with India, which has pursued a more protectionist policy. Countries such as South Korea have fared much better (when measured by economic criteria) than India, and others, over the past fifty years.
1 History of Trade
- Internal and External Trade History
- Barter
- Silent trade
- Introduction of Money
- Trader castes
- Chapmen
- The Silk Route
- The Rise of Banking
- The Age of Discovery
- Merchant Adventurers
- Mercantilism
- Trans-Atlantic Triangular Trade
- Capitalism
- Innovations in transport
- Colonialism and neo-colonialism
- Protectionism and free tradeFree trade is an economic concept referring to the selling of products between countries without tariffs or other trade barriers. Free trade is the absence of artificial ( government-imposed) barriers to trade among individuals and firms in different nati
- Fair tradeFair trade equitable trade is a term used broadly by social justice, peace movement, ecology movement, and Green Movement groups, to contrast with 'unfair' trade practices, and sometimes with free trade as promoted by the World Trade Organization and NAFT
- The World Trade Organisation (WTO)
- Commodities, Goods and Intellectual Property
- Globalisation
2 Organisation of Trade
Different patterns of organising and administering trade include:
- StateThis article discusses states as sovereign political entities. For other meanings, see state (disambiguation). In international law and international relations, a state is a political entity possessing sovereignty, i. not being subject to any higher polit control - trade centrally controlled by government planning.
- GuildA guild is an association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards of morality or conduct. Historically they were small business associations, since each crafter was a self-employed individual art control - trade controlled by private business associations holding either de facto or government-granted power to exclude new entrants.
- Free enterprise - trade without significant central controls; market participants engage in trade based on their own individual assessments of risk and reward, and may enter or exit a given market relatively unimpeded.
3 Types of Trade
