This piece by Benn Steil – who is usually great – is disappointing.
Editor, Project Syndicate
Editor:
Insisting that “free trade can’t bring peace” (Nov. 14), the usually astute Benn Steil demands too much of the doux commerce thesis and, thus, unjustly dismisses it. Contrary to Mr. Steil’s suggestion, the doux commerce thesis is not that free trade is sufficient to guarantee peace. Instead, this thesis is that free trade makes peace more likely – no small achievement.
It’s true, of course, that free trade also requires peace. It’s true, too, that Britain in the 19th century, and America after WWII, did much to keep shipping lanes open, as well as to encourage international cooperation that lowered tariffs and reduced the frequency of other beggar-thy-neighbor policies. But it’s untrue that the causality runs exclusively, or even chiefly, from peace to free trade.
Empirical evidence that free trade promotes peace is abundant, yet Mr. Steil ignored this evidence. He shouldn’t have. Walker Wright, in his contribution to the new Economic Freedom of the World: 2025 Annual Report summarizes much of this empirical research as well as provides many references to it. (See also here.) The doux commerce thesis, properly understood, is alive, well, and valid.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
and
Martha and Nelson Getchell Chair for the Study of Free Market Capitalism at the Mercatus Center
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
