Global Trade: An Introduction to the History, Theory and Political Issues
The long history of trade is one of intercultural contact, competing theoretical paradigms, and controversy over the place of trade in national economic development strategies. Any theory of trade is necessarily a narrative about competition and the ways that humans have sought to exploit weaknesses in rivals, ameliorate the advantages of competitors and use the rewards gained by trade to realize the ambitions of elites. However, the dominant intellectual tradition that goes back as far as Adam Smith and David Ricardo holds that at least in theory, trade can benefit all parties involved if it is organized on a transparent and equitable basis. Controversies over what constitutes advantage and disadvantage in the governance of trade highlight the challenges that beset the global trading system today. The WTO remains mired in age old problems that arise when the strong bargain with the weak, and new problems that beset a governance system operating within a complex and incomplete system of international law.
Is imperialism the ‘highest stage of capitalism’?
As was indicated in the preface to the Russian edition, this pamphlet was written in 1916, with an eye to the tsarist censorship. I am unable to revise the whole text at the present time, nor, perhaps, would this be advisable, since the main purpose of the book was, and remains, to present, on the basis of the summarised returns of irrefutable bourgeois statistics, and the admissions of bourgeois scholars of all countries, a composite picture of the world capitalist system in its international relationships at the beginning of the twentieth century—on the eve of the first world imperialist war.
Achievements and contradictions of the Peruvian agrarian reform
Different paths of transition to capitalist agriculture, as well as different types of agrarian reform, can be distinguished. The Peruvian agrarian reform is analysed within this context and evaluated in terms of its contribution to rural development. The Peruvian case underlines the importance of understanding the rationality of the pre‐existent agrarian system for a successful restructuring of the agrarian economy and society. The contradictions which arose between the State's model and the peasants’ model of agrarian reform, as well as those between different types of peasants, are discussed. Peru's experience is also a reminder that a land reform is not a sufficient condition for rural development unless accompanied by proper price, marketing, credit and investment policies.