Free trade: Myth, Reality and Alternatives

When I was asked to write a book on trade, I at first hesitated Usually when I tell people that I teach and study trade (among other things), I'm given that "Why's a nice bloke like you studying such a boring topic? sort of look. Trade is probably meant to be boring and arguably some things in life should be routine. Then I recollected that this was not always so. In the days of merchant adventurers and caravan trains to exotic places, trade was the most glamorous (and dangerous) pursuit on earth. Early trade was an innocent routine and limited process of acquiring requisite resources and a few luxuries. It was marginal to the domestic economy and embedded in the social order. Society and people took precedence. In time it lost this innocence, with drugs, slaves, arms and avalanches of products, extending now to services trade, capable of destroying entire national industries.