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Price Ceilings and International Trade Theory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 November 2014

G. A. Elliott
G. A. Elliott*
Affiliation:
The University of Alberta
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Extract

In one of his many famous speeches, Mr. Churchill predicted “the English-speaking democracies, the British Empire and the United States, will have to be somewhat mixed up together in some of their affairs for mutual and general advantage.” Mr. Churchill was thinking presumably of the fields of public finance, administration, and war strategy—of quasi-political affairs. This paper is concerned with some of the ways in which the economic affairs of nations are “mixed up together.” Now the economic structures of trading nations are intertwined both in war and peace, and whether trade is administered by public officials or planned by a multitude of private individuals. The importance of the entanglement corresponds to the importance of trading relations in the economic structure of each country. However, when trade is not administered its importance is less direct and obvious to governments and government officials. As controls are extended in the domestic realm, international trading relationships tend more and more to become subjects of administrative and even diplomatic interest. Administrators in the domestic fields are always tempted to simplify their problems by insulating the domestic economy from unexpected or unpredictable changes elsewhere, without considering the total effects of their regulations on the domestic and foreign economies as a whole. Accordingly, international administrative co-ordination in war time must increase very rapidly if it is to keep pace with the increase in domestic regulation and prevent a rapid diminution in the extent and quality of international economic co-operation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science/Revue canadienne de economiques et science politique , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , May 1942 , pp. 186 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association 1942

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References

1 The Winston, Rt. Hon. Churchill, S., Blood, Sweat and Tears (New York, 1941), p. 351.Google Scholar

2 See Mackintosh, W. A., “The Price System and the Procurement of Essential Supplies” (Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, vol. VII, 08, 1941), p. 348.Google Scholar

3 See Bladen, V. W., An Introduction to Political Economy (Toronto, 1941), chap. II.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 See Taylor, K. W., “The War-Time Control of Prices” (in Canadian War Economics, el. by Parkinson, J. F., Toronto, 1941), p. 68.Google Scholar

5 See Bates, Stewart, “The Price System and the War Economy” (Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, vol. VII, 08, 1941, pp. 324–37).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 This conclusion follows from the analysis in Elliott, G. A., “The Relation of Protective Duties to Domestic Production” (Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, vol. VI, 05, 1940, pp. 296–8).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 See Plumptre, A. F. W., Mobilizing Canada's Resources for War (Toronto, 1941), pp. 203–4.Google Scholar

8 For a discussion of shortages of exchange and priorities as regulators of imports see Mackintosh, “The Price System and the Procurement of Essential Supplies.”

9 See Plumptre, , Mobilizing Canada's Resources for War, pp. 203–4.Google Scholar

10 Ibid.