Summer School 5: 250 years of trade history in three chapters
Planet Money
NPR
4.6 • 29.8K Ratings
🗓️ 7 August 2024
⏱️ 40 minutes
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Summary
Trade has come up in all of the episodes of Summer School so far. An early use of money was to make trade easier. Trade was responsible for the birth of companies and the stock market. And trade was the lifeblood of the early United States.
Today's episode covers 250 years of trade history in three chapters. We start with one of the founding texts of economics, Wealth of Nations, in which Adam Smith argues a country's true value is not measured in gold and silver, but by its people's ability to buy things that enhance their standard of living. Then we'll watch American politicians completely ignore that argument in favor of protecting domestic industries – until one congressman makes a passionate case for free trade as the means to world peace. And finally we'll follow the trade debate up to the modern day, where the tides of American politics have turned toward regulation.
This series is hosted by Robert Smith and produced by Audrey Dilling. Our project manager is Devin Mellor. This episode was edited by Planet Money Executive Producer Alex Goldmark and fact-checked by Sofia Shchukina.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Christian Nationalists want to turn America into a theocracy, a government under biblical rule. |
| 0:08.0 | If they gain more power, it could mean fewer rights for you. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Heath Drusen and on the new season of Extremely American, |
| 0:16.0 | I'll take you inside the movement. |
| 0:18.0 | Listen to Extremely American, |
| 0:20.0 | from Boise State Public Radio, |
| 0:22.0 | part of the NPR Network. |
| 0:25.0 | This is Planet Money from NPR. |
| 0:28.0 | Welcome back everyone to Planet Money Summer School, Economic History of the World. |
| 0:36.0 | Considered a master's degree you can literally do with your eyes closed. |
| 0:41.0 | In fact, it's better with your eyes closed because in your mind you can meet the economic geniuses, the crafty idealists, and the greedy rack on tours that created the economy we have today. |
| 0:52.0 | This is lesson five, the rise and fall of free trade. |
| 0:57.0 | I'm Robert Smith. |
| 0:59.0 | Trade between nations. Well, it started before there were nations. In prehistoric archaeological digs, we find evidence that early humans somehow obtain stones and shells from far away places. Trade has come up in all of the episodes of summer school so far. |
| 1:15.3 | One of the early uses of money was to make trade easier. Trade was responsible for |
| 1:20.0 | the birth of companies in the stock market and trade was the lifeblood of the early United States. |
| 1:26.0 | But over the last few hundred years, governments have placed more and more regulations on trade. |
| 1:31.6 | Nations had to figure out whether they should encourage buying from other nations |
| 1:35.2 | or should they try to protect their own industries. Those questions are playing out in politics even today. |
| 1:41.1 | We'll have just one story today about the history of free trade and |
| 1:44.7 | helping us understand all the moving parts is our economics professor for this |
| 1:48.6 | lesson Gordon Hanson from the Harvard Kennedy School. Hey Professor. |
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