International trade

The history of trade is largely the history of civilization. First it was what we call barter, a simple exchange of goods. International trade has now developed into an intricate mechanism of transactions. Today trade is not confined to visible exports and imports of goods but also includes invisible items like services, transportation, insurance, expenditure by tourists, etc.

Countries usually specialize in certain products and commercial activities. This specialization depends on such factors as differences in climate, natural resources, labour force skills and technology. These special conditions give one country an advantage over others in producing certain goods or services.

A country has absolute advantage if it produces the goods that no other nation is able to produce. A country has a comparative advantage in a certain product if it is produced more efficiently and at lower cost. Nations usually specialize in those goods and services in which they have the greatest comparative advantage and exchange their surplus for things they need and want but do not produce themselves.

When countries engage in international trade they express their agreement to specialize in order to produce more of certain goods or services. Countries that trade can together produce more goods and services than they could in the absence of trade.

The balance of trade indicates the difference between the total value of a country’s imports and exports of visible items (goods). The balance of trade is an important part of the balance of payments, which also includes invisible items and capital transfers from one country to another. If the total value of the goods imported (visibles) is higher than that of the goods exported, the balance of trade is bad (adverse or unfavourable), that is to say it shows a deficit. If the reverse case is true, the balance of trade is good or favourable and it shows a surplus. Invisible items can cover the deficit of the balance of trade and as a result the country will have a favourable balance of payments.

What a country can achieve in international trade is shown by the terms of trade. The terms of trade are the rate at which a country’s exports are exchanged for its imports. Terms are said to be good or favourable to a country when the prices of its exports are high in relation to the prices of its imports, and a bad or unfavourable when the reverse is the case. On a global scale imports must equal exports, since every good exported by one country must be imported by another.

What is economics

The word economics comes from the Greek word oikonomos which means ‘to manage resources of a household’. As the resources are often limited economics deals with their rational use. All economic questions arise from the fundamental fact of scarcity. Nature does not provide all the things people want. Since human and material resources are scarce, everybody – individuals, business firms, and governments – needs to make choices from among the things needed or wanted. Economics is the social science that describes and analyses choices from among scarce resources to satisfy people’s wants and needs.

Economics studies human activities which can be grouped under three broad headings: production, consumption and exchange. Production creates supply, that is, the ability of producers to provide goods and services to individuals at various prices. Consumption characterizes demand, that is, the desire of individuals to consume goods and services at various prices. The interrelationships between supply and demand are often referred to as exchange.

There are two ways of looking at economics and the economy: microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics is the study of individual consumers and the business firm. Microeconomics deals with the decisions made by individuals in determining how to get income and how to spend it. With regard to business firms microeconomics determines, first, how to use inputs in the production of output, and, second, how much output to produce. Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole. It deals with the problems of economic growth, unemployment and inflation. Each of these factors is an indicator of the overall state of the economy.