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Title: A Splendid Exchange: How Trade Shaped the World
ISBN: 0871139790
Author:
William J. Bernstein
Publicate Date: 2008-04-11
Publish: 2008-04-11
List Price: $30.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $17.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $18.50
Amazon Merchant Price: $19.80
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Chapters provide a lively history of the principles of trade and their evolution
A SPLENDID EXCHANGE: HOW TRADE SHAPED THE WORLD focuses on world trade trends from early times to modern times. Traders introduced new commodities into the marketplace, bringing with them new ideas and concepts, and introduced 'miracles' to those unfamiliar with changing technology or world products. Chapters provide a lively history of the principles of trade and their evolution, and make for a strong and revealing collection.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
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2: Very entertaining and informative book
The title says it all. 50% done. Really fascinating. Amazing how the fortunes of west, east, and middle east have risen and fallen due to (spices, the plague, islam, catholicism, exploration, naval technology, etc...).
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3: Filling the blanks
History repeats itself and our recent economic problems are cast in a sharper light by reading this book. From pre-history to today mankind has not changed much when it comes to greed & ethics.
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4: The Big Picture Of Commerce As Pursued By We The People
I thought this book was magnificent. It lays out the relationships between need, enticements, vast profit, pursuit of opportunity, brutality, human nature, and such, in a very entertaining fashion.
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5: Birth of More Plenty in A Splendid Exchange
William J Bernstein's "A Splendid Exchange" is another insightful, decisive and highly readable piece in the picture of the world's growth and development which he started with "The Birth of Plenty" his first work of this type. The sheer competence and professional nature of his story telling is matched perhaps only by "the other Bernstein" - Peter.
Like Peter,
William has a brilliant turn of phrase and a great way of settling on apparently trivial incidents which serve to make crucial points.
The analytical strength of the work is the way he elaborates the ubiquity of trade - not through simple assertion with anecdotal back up - but through assembling stories which let the reader see the components and processes which were the meat and drink of the ancient, the medieval and the modern world. The coverage is comprehensive, the reach daunting.
The most innovative treatments for me are:
1. The great story of the "margin versus volume" business model which lurked behind the Dutch success in profiting from spices contrasted with the later English success with the volume model which allowed tea to generate comparable profits.
2. The relentless manner in which rational and logical pursuit of profit sees businessmen throughout time and from culture to culture twist and turn from free trade to protectionism and back. It's a wonderful history of rent seeking. One underlying lesson is that the institutional arrangments these events unfold in are critical in determining outcomes.
3. A third lesson is the vital roles played by price and value. Bernstein's historical documentary shows the way alterations in scarcity coupled with changes in factor costs - especially through technological change which is itself propelled by profit seeking - value identical resources differently and consign the same players to different and differently valued roles.
From the perspective of writing and as a commentator on the wider canvas perhaps Bernstein's greatest accomplishment here is his ability to be realistically depressing while simultaneously expressing awe and optimism. Nowhere is this more apparent than in his discussion of the benefits of free trade relative to protectionism. Some
will quibble with the conclusions. None will be left unchallenged.
Thoroughly recommended on every count.
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