Abstract
Speaking about theories of economic development, M. Bohnet distinguishes between (a) theories of dualism, (b) theories of strategy, and (c) theories of foreign trade. The latter ones may be divided into Perroux’s theory of the dominant economy, the theory of a secular deterioration (as enunciated by Singer and Prebisch), and Bhagwati’s theory of immiserising growth.1 The commodity terms of trade can be measured fairly exactly; statistically the figure results as the quotient of export price index and import price index.2 The problem lies, of course, in the contents of the ‘baskets’ standing for ‘export goods’ and ‘import goods’ and forming the basis for those indices. The commodity terms of trade will be negative if cheap export goods are given in exchange for expensive importations; in the opposite case, a positive exchange relation results.3 According to Singer and Prebisch export prices for raw materials from the developing countries will fall in the long run, whereas prices for manufactured import goods will rise; the consequence will be a deterioration of (real) terms of trade.
For the industrially developed countries technical progress will lead to rising incomes as well as to decreasing import prices for raw materials from the developing countries. Accordingly, being at the same time the producers of manufactured goods exported into the developing countries and buyers of agricultural raw materials therefrom, the former countries will gain in two ways from this intercourse with the latter ones. The result will be an increasingly unjust distribution of welfare between those two parties.4
Prebisch’s investigations were presented to a United Nations Conference on World Trade held at Geneva in 1964; from that time onwards, his ideas have also been discussed by economic historians.5
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Bohnet, Michael, ‘Die Entwicklungstheorien. Ein Uberblick’, Das Nord-Süd-Problem. Konflikte zwischen Industrie- und Entwicklungsländern, Michael Bohnet (2nd ed. München: Piper, 1971) pp. 50–5.
Haberler, Gottfried, article on Aussenhandel (Theorie), Handwörterbuch der Sozialwissenschaften, vol. I (Stuttgart, etc., 1956) p. 465.
Hebga, Joseph, ‘Uber die Terms of Trade der Entwicklungsländer’, Wirtschaftspolitische Chronik. Beiträge zur Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Festgabe für Alfred Muller-Armack, ed. by Institut für Wirtschaftspolitik der Universitat zu Köln (Köln, 1966) p. 273.
R. Prebisch, ‘Towards a New Trade Policy for Development’, UN/E/Conf.46/3, dated 12 February 1964 in Mitteilungen, ed. by Vereinigte Wirtschaftsdienste in cooperation with Bundesstelle für Aussenhandelsinformationen (Frankfurt) vol. 40, No. 80, 1964). For a critical discussion on Prebisch’s opinions cf. Sieber, Hans, ‘Die realen Austauschverhaltnisse zwischen Entwicklungslandern und Industriestaaten. Eine Verifizierung der These Prebischs, in Schriftenreihe für Wirtschaftsprobleme der Entwicklungsländer, ed. by Schweizerisches Institut für Aussenwirtschafts- und Marktforschung an der Hochschule St. Gallen für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, vol. 4 (Tübingen and Zürich, 1968) p. 168. Sieber concludes that the correlation between terms of trade and real factor-incomes in the developing countries’ export sectors, as argued by Prebisch, appears to be questionable as well from a theoretical point of view as with regard to our — rather scanty — statistical material.
Frank, Andre Gunder, Kapitalismus und Unterentwicklung in Lateinamerika (Dritte Welt, Frankfurt, 1969) p. 27.
Marx, Karl, Das Kapital (ed. Institut fur Marxismus-Leninismus beim ZK der SED) Vol. 1 (Berlin, 1966) p. 12. According to Marx development into capitalism was inevitable.
Peliez, Carlos Manuel, ‘The Theory and Reality of Imperialism in the Coffee-Economy of Nineteenth Century Brazil (1857–1906)’, in Economic History Review, 2nd ser., vol. XXIX, No. 2, May 1976, pp. 276–90.
Tableau decennal 1837–1846, p. xiii. For the problems connected with ‘official’ and ‘real’ values in the British foreign trade statistics cf. Imlah, Albert H., ‘Real values in British foreign trade, 1798–1853’, in Journal of Economic History, vol. VIII, 1948, No. 2, pp. 133–52.
Schneider, Jürgen, ‘Handel und Unternehmer im französischen Brasiliengeschäft 1815–1848. Versuch einer quantitativen Strukturanalyse’, Forschungen zur internationalen Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, ed. by Hermann Kellenbenz, vol. 9. (Köln and Wien, 1975) pp. 155–62.
Imlah, Albert H., ‘The terms of trade of the United Kingdom, 1798–1913’, in Journal of Economic History, vol. X, 1950, pp. 170–94.
Lévy-Leboyer, Maurice, Les banques européennes et l’industrialisation internationale dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle, Publications de la Faculte des Lettres et Sciences humaines de Paris, Série ‘Recherches’, vol. XVI (Paris, 1964) pp. 208 seq.
Bairoch, Paul, The Economic Development of the Third World since 1900 (London, 1975) pp. 111.
Regarding Great Britain in general, Albert H. Imlah states (op. cit., p. 176): ‘Among the more striking trends indicated by these indexes none stands out more clearly than the deterioration in the net barter terms of trade in the early years of the series. It was caused by more rapid fall in export than in net import prices, and much the greater part of decline in the net barter terms occurred by the year 1839.’ See also Platt, D. M. C., Latin America and British Trade, 1806–1914 (The Merchant Adventurers: general editor Ralph Davis, London, 1972) and in particular
Humphreys, R. A. (ed.), British Consular Reports on the Trade and Politics of Latin America (London, 1940).
Muller-Armack, Alfred, ‘Konjunkturforschung und Konjunkturpolitik’, in Handworterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, Ergänzungsband (4th ed., Jena, 1929) p. 652.
Borchardt, Knut, ‘Zur Frage des Kapitalmangels in der ersten Hälfte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts’, in Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, vol. 173 (1961) pp. 401–21.
Crouzet, Francois, ‘Die Kapitalbildung in Grossbritannien während der Industriellen Revolution’, in Industrielle Revolution. Wirtschaftliche Aspekte, ed. Rudolf Braun et al. (Köln, 1972).
Winkel, Harald, ‘Die Ablösungskapitalien aus der Bauernbefreiung in West- und Süddeutschland’, Quellen und Forschungen zur Agrargeschichte, vol. XIX, 1968.
Kellenbenz, Hermann, Kaiser, Gerhard and Schneider, Jürgen, ‘Kapitalbildung und Finanzierung von Aktiengesellschaften Oberfrankens in der sweiten Hälfte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, 1854–1914’, in Jahrbuch für Fränkische Landesforschung, vol. 38 (Erlangen, 1978) pp. 191–218.
Fischer, Wolfram, ‘Die Rohstoffversorgung der europäischen Wirtschaft in historischer Perspektive’, in Wirtschaftskräfte und Wirtschaftswege, IV: Ubersee und allgemeine Wirtschaftsgeschichte. Festschrift für Hermann Kellenbenz, ed. Jürgen Schneider, in Verbindung mit dem Vorstand der Gesellschaft für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Karl Erich Born, Alfred Hoffmann, Hans Mauersberg, Hans Pohl und Wolfgang Zorn (Stuttgart, 1978) pp. 675–93.
Needham, Joseph, Wissenschaftlicher Universalismus. Uber Bedeutung und Besonderheit der chinesischen Wissenschaft, ed., introduced and translated by Tilman Spengler (Frankfurt, 1977).
Editor information
Copyright information
© 1981 Paul Bairoch and Maurice Lévy-Leboyer
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Schneider, J. (1981). Terms of Trade Between France and Latin America, 1826–1856: Causes of Increasing Economic Disparities?. In: Bairoch, P., Lévy-Leboyer, M. (eds) Disparities in Economic Development since the Industrial Revolution. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04707-9_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04707-9_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-04709-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-04707-9
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)