Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T18:41:38.923Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2012

Get access

Summary

In June 1924 D. H. Robertson published a short ‘Note on the Real Ratio of International Interchange’ in The Economic Journal. In it he discussed Keynes's treatment of the effects of the post-war improvement in Britain's terms of trade in the course of his controversy with Sir William Beveridge (JMK, vol. xix, pp. 125–37) and suggested Keynes had not set out the alternative policy implications as clearly as he might. In particular, he suggested that Keynes's advocacy of a contrived fall in the ratio of interchange through reductions in real wages only made sense if the difficulties of adjustment to the new situation were too great or if that situation was expected to be transitory. Otherwise, a diversion of resources away from the foreign trade sector or an expansion in overseas lending would make more sense. Keynes commented in a brief postscript.

From The Economic Journal, June 1924

Mr Robertson's analysis makes the whole matter much clearer. But I should like to add that my pessimistic doubts always proceeded from the prior doubt whether the recent relation of export prices to import prices could be expected to last. If we can look forward permanently to buying as much food and raw materials as we require at a price 22 per cent cheaper in terms of exports than before the war, plainly this is nothing to grumble at. But I do not understand what permanent change in our favour can have produced this fortunate result.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Royal Economic Society
Print publication year: 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×