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Unilateral Free Trade Versus Reciprocity in The Wealth of Nations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2009

Edwin G. West
Edwin G. West
Affiliation:
Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
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Extract

In Chapter 2, Book IV, of The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith assesses the appropriateness of the policy of tariff retaliation or reciprocity. His deliberations are prefaced by a discussion of two rather innocuous cases that turn out to have very little to do with the main topic. In the first case it is advantageous “to lay some burden upon foreign, for the encouragement of domestic industry” (WN, p. 463) when that particular industry is necessary for the defence of the country. Smith's second case refers to the situation when some domestic tax is being imposed on a good produced at home. In this situation Smith believed it reasonable that an equal tax should be imposed on the same good when it was imported (WN, p. 465).

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , March 2000 , pp. 29 - 42
Copyright
Copyright © The History of Economics Society 2000

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