Trade, Mercantile Capital And Economic Development (r.c. Dutt Lectures On Political Economy, 1983)

The monograph examines the role of intra and inter national trade in the process of economic growth. A critical assessment is made of the relative productivity of trading vis-à-vis other forms of capital, and of the merchant’s role in exploiting, or as the author calls it, ‘immiserizing the peasantry and perpetuating agricultural backwardness’. The study throws light on quite a few contentious issues raised by Smith, Ricardo, Marx and Keynes. However, the formulations are always of contemporary relevance and have important policy implications for trading nations in general and third world countries in particular.