economics is that trade creates wealth. It’s also one of the least understood ideas in

all of economics. Most people think that if two people trade, one of them has to win and

one of them has to lose. But one of the ideas that has evolved in economics is that trade

creates wealth, and we’re going to see that in the context of a couple of simple examples.

Consider two people, Fritz and Lou. Fritz and Lou can produce two goods. They can produce

socks and they can produce corn. In a given year, Fritz could produce 500 socks or 1,000

ears of corn. Lou, on the other hand, could produce 25 socks or only five ears of corn.

For Fritz, every sock that he produces costs him the opportunity to produce two ears of

corn. Same story for Lou. Lou could produce 25 socks or five ears of corn, so every sock

costs him one fifth of an ear of corn. Every ear of corn costs him five socks. Suppose

that Lou comes up with an idea: Lou goes to Fritz and says, “Hey, tell you what. How

about you specialize in corn and I’ll specialize in socks, and then I’ll trade you one sock

for every ear of corn you’re willing to trade me.” What we want to do is compare

the price at which they propose trading to their opportunity costs.

If you’re Fritz, every sock costs the opportunity to produce two ears of corn. If Fritz is able

to trade for socks, then every sock is only going to cost him one ear of corn. Fritz would

prefer the trade. Why? Because socks are now cheaper.

Let’s see what happens to Lou. If Lou is going to produce corn himself, he has to give

up five socks in order to produce that corn. If Lou trades for corn, he only has to give

up one sock per ear of corn. Fritz, the buyer of socks, is now able to get socks cheaper.

Lou, on the other hand, is able to sell his socks for more than he could get them for

if he produced them himself. Fritz wins. Fritz is made better off. Lou wins. Lou is made

better off. Trade is made of win or, as your economics professor might have told you, trade

creates wealth.