trade: Definition, Synonyms from Answers.com

One of the reasons for trade is specialization of production. Some examples are obvious. European countries are not very successful in growing bananas. Similarly, the distribution of natural resources like coal, iron ore, and oil has always been unequal. Thus each country specializes in producing those commodities in which it has a comparative advantage. Specialization allows economies of scale because it is more efficient to produce for a large world market than for a much smaller national market. The commodities imported rather than produced at home will always require less productive inputs than would be required under home production. Trade is thus an unqualified benefit to all parties, irrespective of whether trade is fair or a country is competitive.

But the fact that trade is universally advantageous does not mean that the benefits are equally distributed. The impact of imperial free trade policies on 19th-cent. India boosted the export of raw cotton to Britain but had a devastating impact on Indian cotton manufactures. Variations in natural resources, in which some countries are rich (Russia) and some are relatively very poor (Japan), and in technology, barriers to trade, and historical experience of development have maintained and augmented these differences.

There is little doubt that international trade and specialized production played a major part in the growth of the industrial economies in the 18th and especially the 19th cent. But the less developed countries have argued that trade has not been beneficial for them since they have been peripheral to those with greater comparative advantage. Indeed it has become a radical criticism of the free market system that it prospered through the exploitation of the less developed countries by the industrial nations. Hence the support for import substitution policies and attempts to persuade the developed world to help by allowing trade on terms favourable to the less developed.

The geographical position of the Middle East has made the region part of far-flung trade networks, as both market and supplier, since antiquity.

The Middle East is the cradle of civilization, the place where agriculture and urban life are thought to have originated. The region was economically vibrant and a center of trade in early antiquity, and it connected far-flung markets across the Eastern Hemisphere during Roman times. The collapse of the Roman Empire fragmented governing institutions in northwestern Europe, dividing its markets from the rest of the world. The rise of Islam during the seventh century C.E. and its subsequent diffusion spread Arabic and a common legal system (shariʿa) across the southern Mediterranean and as far east as what now is Indonesia. Trade was rein-vigorated and, following the Mongol conquest and consolidation in east and west Asia, overland trade between the Middle East and China along the Silk Road also thrived.

Trade before the Modern Period

Before the modern period, the Middle East exported mainly high-quality manufactured products to Europe and Africa, with which it generally enjoyed a trade surplus. Raw materials and manufactured products went to Asia but, like others trading with this region, Middle Eastern merchants often ran deficits with their east Asian partners.

The area around the Indian Ocean was a main market and supplier of goods to the Middle East. Pepper and spices came from the East Indies and were re-exported as well as consumed locally. Teak for ship construction and other tropical woods were imported from India; porcelain and silk came from China. After silkworms were smuggled out of China during the sixth century C.E., the Middle East also became a producer and exporter of silk cloth. Arab and Iranian shipping dominated the Indian Ocean as far as the Straits of Malacca, where Chinese junks took over, sailing to Guangzhou (Canton) and other Chinese ports to sell carpets, linens, cotton and wool fabrics, metalwork, iron ore, pearls, and ivory.

Overland trade with the Baltic region went via the Volga and other Russian rivers. Along these routes, Middle Eastern traders exchanged manufactured goods for furs, wax, amber, and slaves. The ancient sea trade with East Africa expanded greatly with the spread of Islam and with the establishment of branches of family trading concerns by Arabs and Iranians down the East African coast. Middle Eastern traders exchanged cloth, glassware, weapons, and trinkets for Africa's wood, ivory, palm oil, and gold. Slaves were sent from Africa to the Middle East in large numbers, most remaining in the countries bordering the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, but some going as far as India and China. The trans-Sahara trade blossomed following the introduction of caravans between Egypt, North African ports, and tropical Africa, exchanging African gold, ivory, pepper, and slaves for salt, weapons, copper, textiles, glass-ware, and trinkets.

Trade with Europe eventually would come to dominate Middle Eastern exchange relations, but Europe's lagging development following the sack of Rome confined most European exports to the Middle East to raw materials such as wood, iron, furs, and slaves. In exchange, Europeans received the high-quality manufactures for which the Middle East had long been famous: glassware, metal goods, and fabrics. As corruption eroded Egypt's competitive position during the fourteenth century, manufactures brought by Venetian traders began to displace local products. During the first half of the sixteenth century, Portugal invaded and took control of the Indian Ocean trade, constructing fortifications in ports like Bahrain and charging protection rents to merchants for allowing their goods to pass. The Dutch then displaced the Portuguese from much of their empire, and Portuguese interference with
local shipping waned. Shipbuilding thrived in the Persian Gulf during the eighteenth century, and merchant families grew rich from pearling and long-distance trade. Gulf-based merchants carried a wide variety of goods - including live horses - east to South Asia and west to the African coast. Their predominance in their own region was challenged and gradually eroded during the nineteenth century. In mid-century, competition from British steam-powered ships began taking business from Arab shippers who relied on wind-powered dhows and boums. Near the end of the century, the British navy established protectorates over the smaller emi-rates near the mouth of the Gulf and soon dominated that sea.

During the nineteenth century, the terms of trade between the Middle East and Europe gradually shifted as Europeans penetrated Middle Eastern markets and pressed governments for changes favoring imports over articles produced locally. High value-added products (i.e., manufactured or processed goods rather than raw materials) increasingly came from Europe rather than being produced at home. For example, Morocco had been famous for its refined sugar, but its Middle Eastern markets were overtaken by sugar from southern Europe and by sugar from the New World that had been refined in Europe. A similar displacement occurred later with respect to coffee. Manufactured goods were similarly displaced as fine silk and woolen fabrics, high-quality paper, and glass, which formerly had gone from the Middle East to Europe, began to flow from Europe to the Middle East. New European products, such as clocks, spectacles, and weapons, entered Middle Eastern markets without local competition. Although yarn exports to Europe continued until the end of the eighteenth century, it was clear by the time of the industrial revolution that the Middle East was becoming a peripheral actor in world trade, exporting mostly primary products and importing mostly manufactured and processed goods from the industrializing European core.

Shifting trade patterns accelerated during the nineteenth-century era of globalization, which ended with World War I. Total world trade rose from some $1.7 billion in 1800 to $42 billion in 1913. During this period, the share of world trade going to the Middle East was halved, falling from about 3 percent in 1800 to 1.5 percent in 1913. The slope of the upsurge in trade reflected European investment in steamships and railroads, and what economists like John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson called "the imperialism of free trade": in the name of open markets, Britain forced weaker trading partners to abolish monopolies and local trade regulations and to adopt low uniform tariffs on imports. Referred to as capitulations, these institutional changes ensured that the market effects of competition from an industrializing Europe on artisan production in the Middle East (and elsewhere) would not be moderated by the state. This virtually guaranteed that the region would be incorporated into the global trading system as a dependent exporter of raw materials: tobacco, dried fruits, and cotton from Turkey; silk and opium from Iran; wheat, barley, and dates from Syria and Iraq; silk from Lebanon; oranges from Palestine; and coffee beans from Yemen.

Foreign investment and loans were key elements changing the terms of trade and fostering trade dependency. Egyptian overinvestment in cotton production during the U.S. Civil War displaced local food production and, when cotton prices collapsed, increased Egypt's foreign debt. The protection of foreign creditors served as a justification for imposing on the Egyptian government a joint British-French commission in 1876. Britain used this
opportunity to take control of the Suez Canal and, in 1882, of Egypt itself. Trade deficits combined with heavy foreign borrowing caused the Ottoman Empire to declare bankruptcy in 1875 and, six years later, led to the establishment of the Ottoman Debt Commission. This essentially parallel ministry of finance represented the interests of the Ottoman Empire's creditors, and imposed an early version of conditionality (i.e., the surrender of control over fiscal policy to an agent of foreign creditors) to ensure that they would be repaid.

The Modern Period

The discovery of oil in Iran at the turn of the twentieth century confirmed the position of the Middle East as a supplier of raw materials, defining its position in world trade for the next century. Competition between France and Britain for control of Iraqi oil influenced the way the defeated Ottoman Empire was divided into mandates governed by these two victors after World War I. During the interwar period, oil was found in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, while the Iraqi oil industry became the balance wheel regulating the development of production capacity in the region via the Red Line Agreement of 1928. During World War II, trade volume declined regionally and globally owing to blockades, dangers to shipping, and shut-in oil production. Afterward, the production and sale of petroleum came to dominate interregional trade. Starting in 1960, the Organization of Petroleum

Exporting Countries (OPEC) struggled to reverse the unfavorable terms of trade that had beset its Middle Eastern members since the nineteenth century by halting and then reversing the incipient decline in real oil prices that threatened to erode oil-exporter income.

Oil exports altered economic positions intra-regionally. Until 1948, Egypt and Turkey accounted for the majority of Middle Eastern trade. After that, the oil-producing countries captured an enormous proportion of total regional trade, especially exports. Attempts to foster intraregional trade through common markets and regional organizations such as the Gulf Cooperation Council mostly foundered on the shoals of economies deformed by dependent development - that is, development strategies emphasizing oil and gas production rather than goods and services aimed primarily at domestic and regional markets. Local industrial development also was affected by what is sometimes called "Dutch disease" (because the same situation affected Holland during the heyday of its exploitation of the riches of the East Indies), oil export - induced monetary inflation that decreased the competitiveness of local goods as compared to imports. Dutch disease makes domestic production uncompetitive, even at home, further discouraging economic diversification.

The Arab League trade boycott, imposed against Israel after its creation in 1948 and still in effect in a number of Arab countries, was another factor retarding the development of local industries in Arab countries; it also deprived Israeli farms and factories of a nearby market for their products and increased Israel's already massive dependence on foreign assistance. Together, these outcomes increased the power of government over civil society, both in Israel and in the Arab states, by diminishing the capacity of domestic business interests to exercise checks on the state. The boycott also aggravated a conflict that all the region's governments used to their advantage to discourage if not repress domestic dissent.

Middle Eastern trade oscillates in response to political crises and wars, many connected to the Arab - Israeli conflict. In general, crises tend to depress Middle Eastern oil exports, either through oil embargoes or as a result of war-induced oil price increases. For example, the global position of Arab oil exporters was gravely damaged by consumer efforts to find other sources of hydrocarbon imports following the 1973 Arab-Israel war and the Arab oil embargo, which enabled OPEC to raise crude oil prices to what then were unheard-of levels. Ten years later, the volume of oil exports from OPEC countries was half what it had been in 1973. (Oil income did not fall in proportion because of further oil price increases during that period.) Other conflicts, such as the revolution in Iran and the subsequent U.S. trade sanctions against it, and the three Gulf Wars in which Iraq was a major belligerent (1980 - 1988; 1990 - 1991; and 2003), also affected regional trade. The first Gulf War, between Iran and Iraq, was fought in part with oil exports. Iraqi exports were occasionally halted by Iranian attacks but Iraq continued to receive oil income from Saudi and Kuwaiti sales of oil from the former Neutral Zone. Meanwhile, Iran suffered under U.S. trade sanctions, which depressed its export income.

As regards the balance of trade overall, oil-exporting-country revenues usually have exceeded the cost of imported goods and services. Non-oil exporters, such as Egypt, Israel, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, and Turkey, ran trade deficits, some incurred to pay for oil imports. The deficits were covered by foreign aid and loans, leading to large foreign debts. These macro-level effects mask significant changes in non-oil-exporting economies. For most, the composition of exports has changed. Traditional raw-material exports like cotton and grain have declined owing to greater processing and consumption at home. A growing export trade in manufactured goods, such as high-tech equipment and finished textiles, is bringing new trade income to Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon. On the import side, rising incomes from oil exports have trickled down to non-oil-exporting neighbors via labor migration and, prior to the collapse in oil prices in 1986, through intraregional foreign aid. This allowed imports of foodstuffs, durable consumer goods, industrial and transport machinery, and raw materials to rise.

The most disturbing component of Middle Eastern trade is armaments. Higher oil prices in the 1970s were offset by the aggressive marketing of weapons to Middle Eastern Muslim countries. The motives of arms buyers were diverse. Some, such as Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, sought arms from external patrons as a way to assert their political and religious authority in the region. Others felt themselves to be at a disadvantage as compared to their neighbors, especially Israel, with its virtually First World military industries and its ability to acquire weapons and advanced military technologies, mostly free, from the United States. The overall decline in the world economy following the 1973 Arab-Israeli war made trade-surplus oil exporters attractive targets of marketing efforts by arms exporters from throughout the world. Britain, France, China, and Russia joined the United States in building arms export markets in the Middle East. Beginning in the 1980s, when U.S. policy shifted toward greater marketization of supporting strategic industries by encouraging them to market weapons abroad, then expanding during the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, even materials for so-called weapons of mass destruction became widely available for import into the Middle East and elsewhere.

Bibliography

Gallagher, John, and Robinson, Ronald. "The Imperialism of Free Trade." Economic History Review, 2d series, no. 6 (1953): 1 - 15.

Issawi, Charles. An Economic History of the Middle East and NorthAfrica. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.

Nitzan, Jonathan, and Bichler, Shimshon. The Global Political Economy of Israel. Sterling, VA; London: Pluto Press, 2002.

Schwartz, Herman M. States Versus Markets: The Emergence of aGlobal Economy. 2d edition. New York and Basingstoke, U.K.: Palgrave, 2000.

— CHARLES ISSAWI
UPDATED BY MARY ANN TÉTREAULT

Dansk (Danish)
n. - levevej, erhverv, næringsvej, branche, bestilling, profession
v. intr. - drive forretning
v. tr. - bytte, handle, udveksle

idioms:

• be in trade    være etableret i forretning
• trade alliance    handelsalliance
• trade cycle    konjunkturcyklus
• trade fair    handelsmesse, udstilling
• trade gap    underskud på handelsbalancen
• trade in    vare, der tages som delvis betaling
• trade journal    erhvervstidskrift
• trade name    varemærke, firmanavn
• trade off    afvejning, byttehandel
• trade on    tjene på
• trade price    engrospris
• trade school    handelsskole
• trade secret    erhvervshemmelighed
• trade union    fagforening
• trade wind    passatvind
• trades union    fagforening

Nederlands (Dutch)
handel, bedrijfstak, ambacht, vakkring, handel drijven, ruilen, klant zijn, handels-

Français (French)
n. - commerce, industrie, métier, profession, échange, troc, (Météo) alizé, prostitué (homme) (vulg)
v. intr. - (Comm) faire du commerce, (Fin) s'échanger, exploiter, se servir de
v. tr. - échanger (contre), échanger (insultes)
adj. - commercial, économique, professionnel

idioms:

• in trade    être dans le commerce
• trade cycle    cycle économique
• trade down    reprendre (qch de valeur contre qch ayant moins de valeur)
• trade fair    (Comm) salon
• trade gap    (Écon) déficit commercial
• trade in    (Comm) reprendre
• trade journal    journal économique
• trade name    (Comm) nom de marque
• trade off    peser le pour et le contre, échanger contre
• trade on    exploiter, se servir de
• trade price    prix de vente
• trade school    école de commerce
• trade secret    secret de fabrication, secret d'État (hum)
• trade union    syndicat
• trade up    (Comm) reprendre
• trade wind    (Météo) alizé
• trades union    syndicat

Deutsch (German)
n. - Handel, Handwerk, Fach, Gewerbe, Geschäft, Tausch, (ugs.) Handel in Spirituosen, (Slang) U-Boot-Dienst, Passatwind
v. - handeln, tauschen, austauschen, Handel treiben, Handelswaren befördern
adj. - Handels-

idioms:

• in trade    im Handel tätig sein, ein Geschäft haben
• trade cycle    Konjunkturzyklus
• trade down    etwas Wertvolles gegen etwas von einem niedrigen Wert tauschen
• trade fair    (Fach)messe
• trade gap    Handelsbilanzdefizit
• trade in    handeln mit, eintauschen, in Zahlung geben
• trade journal    Fachzeitschrift
• trade name    Fachbezeichnung, Markenname, Firmenbezeichnung
• trade off    gegeneinander austauschen
• trade on    Kapital schlagen aus
• trade price    Einkaufspreis
• trade school    Gewerbeschule
• trade secret    Geschäftsgeheimnis
• trade union    Gewerkschaft
• trade up    etwas in Zahlung einer teuren Sache geben
• trade wind    Passatwind
• trades union    Gewerkschaft

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - εμπόριο, συναλλαγή, επάγγελμα, τέχνη, δουλειά, συντεχνία, συνάφι, κλάδος, ανταλλαγή
v. - εμπορεύομαι, συναλλάσσομαι, κάνω δουλειές, ανταλλάσσω
adj. - εμπορικός, επαγγελματικός, συντεχνιακός

idioms:

• be in trade    κάνω εμπόριο
• trade alliance    εμπορική συμμαχία
• trade cycle    (οικον.) (Βρετ.) κύκλος της οικονομικής δραστηριότητας
• trade fair    εμποροπανήγυρη
• trade gap    (οικον.) έλλειμμα εμπορικού ισοζυγίου
• trade in    ανταλλάσσω (μεταχειρισμένο αγαθό με καινούργιο)
• trade journal    περιοδικό συγκεκριμένου χώρου
• trade name    εμπορική επωνυμία, φίρμα
• trade off    ανταλλάσσω, κάνω τράμπα, θυσιάζω, δίνω σε αντάλλαγμα για κάτι άλλο, αξιοποιώ
• trade on    εκμεταλλεύομαι
• trade price    (οικον.) τιμή χονδρικής πωλήσεως
• trade school    επαγγελματική σχολή
• trade secret    μυστικό του επαγγέλματος
• trade union    συνδικαλιστική οργάνωση, εργατικό σωματείο, συνδικάτο
• trade wind    (μετεωρ.) αληγής άνεμος, (ο) ετησίας
• trades union    συνδικαλιστική οργάνωση, εργατικό σωματείο, συνδικάτο
• trading estate    εμπορικό συγκρότημα

Italiano (Italian)
vendere, barattare, scambiare, commerciare, commercio, mestiere, circolo commerciale, commerciale

idioms:

• be in trade    essere nel commercio
• trade cycle    ciclo economico
• trade fair    fiera
• trade gap    disavanzo commerciale
• trade in    scambiare
• trade journal    giornale economico
• trade name    nome depositato
• trade off    scambiare
• trade on    approfittare di
• trade price    prezzo all'ingrosso
• trade school    scuola commerciale
• trade secret    segreto commerciale
• trade wind    alisei
• trade(s) union    sindacato
• trading estate    zona commerciale

Português (Portuguese)
n. - comércio (m), freguesia (m), troca (f), ocupação (f), profissão (f)
v. - trocar, negociar
adj. - pouco escrupuloso

idioms:

• be in trade    ser comerciante
• trade cycle    ciclo comercial
• trade fair    feira de comércio
• trade gap    quando a importação excede a exportação
• trade in    entregar, trocar
• trade journal    atas comerciais
• trade name    nome do ofício
• trade off    troca
• trade on    tirar partido de
• trade price    preço de revenda
• trade school    escola profissional
• trade secret    segredo do ofício
• trade union    sindicato
• trade wind    vento alísio
• trade(s) union    sindicatos
• trading estate    distrito (m) comercial/industrial (Brit.)

Русский (Russian)
торговать, промышлять, обменивать, менять, торговля, ремесло, торговый, ремесленный, промышленный

idioms:

• be in trade    работать по торговой части, торговец
• trade cycle    цикл торговли
• trade fair    промышленная ярмарка
• trade gap    дефицит торгового баланса
• trade in    отдача старой вещи в счет покупки новой
• trade journal    журнал, посвященный профессиональным вопросам
• trade name    фабричная марка
• trade off    сбывать (старые товары)
• trade on    "сделать капитал" на чем-л. (подчас нечестным образом)
• trade price    оптовая/фабричная цена
• trade school    профессиональная школа
• trade secret    профессиональный секрет
• trade union    проф. союз
• trade wind    пассат
• trade(s) union    профсоюз(ы)
• trading estate    промышленная зона

Español (Spanish)
n. - negocio, oficio, profesión, artesanía, industria, ramo, tráfico, comercio, círculo profesional
v. intr. - cambiar, canjear, negociar, comerciar
v. tr. - vender, cambiar, canjear, trocar, comerciar o tratar en
adj. - comercial, mercantil

idioms:

• in trade    estar en un negocio, ser comerciante, tener un negocio
• trade cycle    ciclo económico, coyuntura
• trade down    intercambiar un artículo de más valor por uno de menos
• trade fair    feria de muestras, feria comercial
• trade gap    déficit comercial, de la balanza comercial
• trade in    entregar un artículo como entrada para el pago de otro artículo
• trade journal    revista de una profesión o ramo determinados
• trade name    nombre comercial, razón social
• trade off    intercambiar
• trade on    aprovecharse de
• trade price    precio para reventa, precio al por mayor
• trade school    escuela artesanal, escuela de artes y oficios
• trade secret    secreto de fabricación
• trade union    asociación profesional obrera, sindicato gremial, gremio
• trade up    intercambiar un artículo de más valor por uno de menos
• trade wind    vientos alisios
• trades union    asociación profesional obrera, sindicato gremial, gremio

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - handel, affärer, bransch
v. - handla, göra affärer
adj. - handels-, affärs-, bransch-

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
贸易, 交易, 商业, 经商, 买卖, 用...进行交换

idioms:

• be in trade    是做买卖的, 是做生意的, 是零售商
• trade alliance    贸易协议
• trade cycle    商业周期, 经济循环
• trade fair    贸易展销会, 商展
• trade gap    贸易差额
• trade in    抵价购物
• trade journal    行业杂志
• trade name    商号, 商标, 商品名
• trade off    以物易物, 权衡法, 权衡利弊
• trade on    利用
• trade price    批发价
• trade school    中等专业学校, 职业学校
• trade secret    商业机密, 秘密
• trade union    工会
• trade wind    信风
• trades union    工会

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 貿易, 交易, 商業
v. intr. - 交易, 經商, 買賣
v. tr. - 用...進行交換

idioms:

• be in trade    是做買賣的, 是做生意的, 是零售商
• trade alliance    貿易協定
• trade cycle    商業周期, 經濟循環
• trade fair    貿易展銷會, 商展
• trade gap    貿易差額
• trade in    抵價購物
• trade journal    行業雜誌
• trade name    商號, 商標, 商品名
• trade off    以物易物, 權衡法, 權衡利弊
• trade on    利用
• trade price    批發價
• trade school    中等專業學校, 職業學校
• trade secret    商業機密, 秘密
• trade union    工會
• trade wind    貿易風
• trades union    工會

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 무역, 직업, 업계
v. intr. - 무역을 하다
v. tr. - 교환하다, 팔아 치우다

idioms:

• be in trade    장사하다
• trade in    장사하다
• trade off    팔아버리다, 교환하다, 서로 번갈아가며 사용하기
• trade on    ~을 이용하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 貿易, 商売, 職業, 顧客, 得意先, 同業者, 交換, トレード, 商業, 売買
v. - 商う, 取り引きする, 交換する, トレードする, いつも買い物をする

idioms:

• be in trade    貿易に従事している
• the tools of the trade    顧客のいいなり
• trade alliance    貿易協定
• trade cycle    景気循環
• trade fair    見本市
• trade gap    貿易欠損
• trade in    下取りしてもらう
• trade journal    業界雑誌, 業界誌
• trade name    商用名, 商品名, 商号, 屋号
• trade off    交互に使用する, 交換する
• trade on    利用する
• trade price    卸値
• trade school    職業学校
• trade secret    企業秘密
• trade union    労働組合
• trade wind    貿易風
• trade(s) union    労働組合

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) تجارة, حرفه, مهنه (فعل) يتسوق, يتاجر (صفه) تجاري‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮סחר, סחר-חליפין, עסק, עיסקה, מקצוע, עבודה, מלאכה, אומנות, ספקי מזון מורשים, חילופי עלבונות או מהלומות‬
v. intr. - ‮הוביל סחורה, עשה עיסקה, קנה ומכר מניות או מטבעות‬
v. tr. - ‮החליף (סחורות), קנה, החליף (מהלומות, עלבונות וכו)‬

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