<p> This thesis examines the theory of unequal exchange - an
application of the labour theory of value to international freetrade
- arguing that increased trade will harm rather than improve
economic and social disparities between the developed and Third
World countries. The theory as put forward by Arghiri Emmanuel
is first presented and criticised. Assumptions of capital mobility
and labour mobility on a world scale are than examined. As a
result of these analyses unequal exchange is found to be a process
the magnitude of which is mediated by the historical development
of technology and the increasing mobility of productive capital.
Unequal exchange does not provide a monocausal explanation of
uneven development in capitalism as dependency-like interpretations would suggest, though it does make a significant contribution to a multicausal explanation. </p> <p>The existence of unequal exchange is shown, and its magnitude
measured'i""' empirically on the basis of Morishima's value system.
Input-output accounts for Canada and the Philippines are used for
1961 to produce estimates of commodity values per dollar. It is
found that exports from the Philippines sold at prices that were
almost five times lower than exports from Canada of the same
value. Unequal exchange therefore, is a significant counteracting
influence to the tendency for the rate of profit to fall in developed
sectors, reducing the rate of profit, and therefore the rate of accumulation, in less developed sectors of production. </p> <p> The results of this analysis provide for two policy
suggestions. Firstly the need to extend the class struggle
to an international scale. Secondly, whilst import substitution
may not solve the problems of less developed countries, an
increase in trade will only harm them further. </p> / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/17734 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Foot, Simon P. H. |
| Contributors | Webber, M. J., Geography |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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