Foreign Trade Quotes
There was a time when American business was not particularly interested in foreign markets. The entire nation was much more isolationist then.
When asked to explain why the U. S. had supplied $11 billion to the Soviet Union in lend-lease aid during World War II:
This was in response to English Emissaries who wanted to establish trading businesses in China. The Emperor would not even meet personally with Lord McCartney, the first British envoy because McCartney would not kow-tow to the Emperor. The “hongs” were special businesses set up by Chinese businessmen who had paid the Proper fee, for the purposes of being traders with foreigners. Canton, now Guangzhou, is 150 years later still the major international trading center in China although there are no longer restrictions. At the time, the British paid for their Chinese good with Opium that they had purchased in their Indian Colony. English cloth and other goods would be sent to India, traded for opium, which was brought to China and traded for tea, silks and porcelain which were returned to England and turned into cash than was worth much more than their original purchase and the cost of the voyage.
William the Conqueror. Note that it was OK to trade, buy and sell slaves and indentured servants as long as foreigners didn’t get the benefit of them.
Despite developed nation calls for free trade, The US, EEC and Japan maintain an extensive system of agricultural subsidies which are politically difficult to eliminate while expecting developing nations to eliminate their protectionist practices.
It is very easy for an American company to make parts in the United States, ship them to Mexico for assembly and bring the finished product back. However, for counties like France it is much more difficult.
This same argument was used before and since to justify protecting domestic manufacturing from foreign competition until it can mature sufficiently to compete in a global economy. One difficulty occurs if protective tariffs are imposed for this reason. The manufacturers protected never seem to reach the point where they can compete without the subsidy.
Despite this economic reality, many underdeveloped nations sell their raw materials because it is easier than the alternative which takes capital investment in processing plants and equipment, training of workers, and establishing a marketing mechanism. Most third world nations are limited in their capacity to do this but they have abundant natural resources.
Romania had a mediocre small arms manufactureing capability but their weapons were not in great demand by governments around the world. However, there were illegal insurgent groups in many countries who would pay hard currency for arms that would b smuggled into various countries. Governments like Romania were not supposed to sell to these groups, but Romania did.
While Wilson is often thought of a humanist and a man committed to World peace and national rights of independence, he was also a committed economic imperialist. See {585454} for another example.
There was much New England dissatisfaction with the disproportionate power held by the Southern states as a result of counting three-fifths of the slave population for apportioning Congressional seats. In addition they were disproportionately hurt by the War of 1812 and the Embargo on trade with England. Secession was proposed but failed to get a majority. A number of proposed Constitutional amendments were voted upon. The super-majority herein required would have diminished their vulnerability to Southern power.
He was the first Chinese official to make opium illegal. However, British many merchants were involved in a complicated trade scheme whereby they brought opium to Canton. They paid not attention to the new laws against opium the same as their Chinese customers. Lin Zexu, perceiving Queen Victoria to have powers equivalent to the Chinese Emperor who could do anything in China, He assumed that the Queen could and would control the merchant’s behavior, and before punishing the British merchants, he was putting the Queen on notice. There is no record of what Victoria did, if anything. When Lin Zexu tried to enforce his ban on opium, the British Merchants resisted and the First Opium War broke out between China and Britainin which the Chinese were humiliated and resent to this day. A bronze statue of Lin Zexu was erected in his honor in Chatham Square (Kimlau Square) of New York City's Chinatown.
During her adult life, she was the de facto ruler of China. Officials then did little or nothing to curb the attacks on the various foreigners and foreign power that occupied and exercised some control over parts of China. The Government itself could do little as it was too weak militarily with many key officials bribed by the foreign powers. The Boxers were a grass roots xenophobic movement devoted to getting the foreign powers out of China by violence.
