Comerț internațional

Doctrina economiei universale

 Doctrina economiei universale

• Atitudinea anticilor față de comerț

• Doctrina economiei universale (propriu-zisă)

– (Douglas A. Irwin, Against the Tide. An Intellectual
History of Free Trade, Princeton University Press,
1996, cap. 1)

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 Atitudini antice față de comerț
• Atitudine ambivalentă, confuză față de comerț (aprobare/dezaprobare)

– Vizibilă, de pildă, în atitudinea față de mări:

• Favorabilă: (Plutarh) ”This element, therefore, when our life was savage and unsociable,
linked it together and made it complete, redressing defects by mutual assistance and
exchange and so bringing about cooperation and friendship… the sea brought the Greeks
the vine from India, from Greece transmitted the use of grain across the sea, from
Phoenicia imported letters as a memorial against forgetfulness, thus preventing the
greater part of mankind from being wineless, graineless, and unlettered.”

• Defavorabilă: (Horațiu) ”In vain has God in his wisdom planned to divide the land by the
sea’s separations, if, for all that, ungodly ships are crossing the waters that he placed out
of bounds.”

– Atitudinea (ambivalentă) față de comerțul propriu-zis

• Teoretizarea ambivalentă a schimbului
– Aristotel operează cu ambele versiuni de teorie a schimbului (echivalență și dublă asimetrie)

– Identificarea incipientă a beneficiilor diviziunii muncii:

• Platon (Republica): ”The result [of such a division], then, is that more things are
produced, and better and more easily when one man performs one task according to his
nature, at the right moment, and at leisure from other occupations”; ” it is practically
impossible to establish the city in a region where it will not need imports”

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 Doctrina economiei universale
• 4 elemente (Jacob Viner, The Role of Providence in the Social Order,
Princeton University Press, 1976, 27-54):

– Credința stoic-cosmopolitană în fraternitatea universal umană (”toți suntem

frați”)
• (Sau o fi creștină?)
• Costurile relevante de oportunitate sunt cele mondiale
• Piața relevantă este „întreaga lume”
• Interdependența sau dependența reciprocă

– Descrie beneficiile pe care schimbul/comerțul le aduc umanității

• Fiecare se poate bucura de bunuri indisponibile în propria regiune
• Costuri mai mici

– Resursele economice sunt distribuite inegal pe glob

• (anticipare a legii ricardiene a asocierii și a modelului Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson sau al
”înzestrării factoriale”)
• Problema egalității

– Atribuie situația (”fericită”) intervenției divine, care are în vedere prin

promovarea comerțului cooperarea/apropierea între oameni

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 Autori care au expus-o:
• Seneca (cca. 4 î.Hr. – 65 d.Hr.):
– observa că Providența a aranjat elementele naturale astfel încât ”the wind has
made communication possible between all peoples and has joined nations
which are separate geographically”

• Philon din Alexandria (cca. 15-10 î.Hr. – 54 d.Hr.):

– ”He [God] has made none of these particular things complete in itself, so that
it should have no need at all of other things. Thus, through the desire to
obtain what it needs, it must perforce approach that which can supply its
needs, and this approach must be mutual and reciprocal. Thus, through
reciprocity and combination…God meant that they should come to fellowship
and concord and form a single harmony. And that a universal give and take
should govern them, and lead to the consummation of the whole world”

• Origen (cca. 185 – cca. 254):

– ”Lack of the necessities of life has also made things, which originate in other
places, to be transported to those men who do not posses by them the art of
sailing and navigation; so that for these reasons one might admire
providence”

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• Libanius (cca. 314 – cca. 394):
– ”God did not bestow all products upon all parts of the earth, but distributed
His gifts over different regions, to the end that men might cultivate a social
relationship because one would have need of the help of another. And so He
called commerce into being, that all men might be able to have common
enjoyment of the fruits of earth, no matter where produced.”
• Exprimare ”canonică” a doctrinei economiei universale, citată adesea în secolele
următoare

• Sf. Vasile cel Mare (cca. 330 – 379):

– The sea ”becomes a patron of wealth to merchants, and it supplies the needs
of life, providing for the exportation of superfluous articles by the prosperous
and granting to the needy the remedy for their wants”.
• Problema surplusului: condiție suficientă, dar nu necesară pentru apariția schimbului.

• Sf. Ioan Hrisostom (”Gură de Aur”; cca. 347 - 407):

– Student al lui Libanius în tinerețe; consideră că marea leagă diferitele regiuni,
preîntâmpinând descurajarea relațiilor cordiale între oameni, și transformând
pământul într-o singură casă locuită de toți.

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• Teodoret (”al Cirului”; cca. 393 – cca. 457)
– ”For the Creator, wishing to instill harmony into human
beings, made them depend on one another for various
needs. For these reasons we make long voyages on sea,
seek our needs from others, and bring back cargoes of
what we want; nor has providence allocated to each
section of the earth all the needs of mankind lest self-
sufficiency should militate against friendship. Accordingly
the sea lies in the center of the earth, divided into
countless bays like the market place of a huge city,
providing an abundance of every necessity, and receives
many sellers and buyers and brings them from one place
to another and back again”.