The main advantage of foreign trade is the same as that of any other exchange. It is hardly necessary to review the explanation here: the increased efficiency of labor when it is applied in the way for which each country is best fitted; the liberation of productive forces for the best uses: the development of special branches of industry with increasing returns; the larger scale production with resulting greater use of machinery and with increased chance of invention; the destruction of local monopolies.
The moral and intellectual gains of foreign commerce were formerly much emphasized. Commerce is an agent of progress; it stimulates the arts and sciences; it creates bonds of common interest; it gives an understanding of foreign peoples and an appreciation of their merits; it raises a commercial and moral barrier to war; and it furthers the ideal of a world federation, the brotherhood of man.
— Frank A. Fetter, The Principles of Economics [1905]
- Frank A. Fetter (1863-1949)
by Jeffrey Herberner
Ludwig von Mises Institute - Frank A. Fetter, 1863-1949
History of Economic Thought - Recent Discussion of the Capital Concept
by Frank A. Fetter
McMaster University - The Principles of Economics With Applications to Practical Problems
by Frank A. Fetter
Ludwig von Mises Institute - Fetter Bibliography
Ludwig von Mises Institute