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Article:
God's Diplomacy - International Trade and the Macedonian Economy by: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. A British politician, Richard Cobden once (1857) wrote: 'Free Trade is God's diplomacy and there is no other certain way of uniting people in the bonds of peace' International, free trade is particularly important to developing, poor, countries (among them the 'economies in transition'). Without international trade, the local economy is limited. It does not manufacture and produce more than it can consume. If it produces excess products, commodities, or services - no one buys them, they accumulate as inventory, and they bring about losses to the producers and, often, a recession. So, in the best of cases - even assuming optimal management and unlimited availability of capital - a firm in a closed economy can expect to grow by no more than the rate of growth of the local population. This is where exports mitigate population growth as a constraint. An export market is equivalent to a sudden growth in the local population. Suddenly, the firm has more people to sell to, additional places to market its products in, an increasing demand which really is unlimited. No firm in the world is big enough not to be negligible in the global marketplace. With 6.2 billion people and 170 million new ones added every year - it is much cleverer to export than to limit oneself to a market with '2
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