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In the earlier days of recorded history, nations traded to obtain more goods, especially those they couldn't produce themselves, which seems like a logical enough motive. But by the 17th century, this motive for trade gradually eroded. The de ....

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... By the 18th century it was generally acknowledged that a favorable balance of trade meant exporting more than importing and accumulating a surplus of gold in the process. But in the Wealth of Nations (first published in 1776), the Scottish economist-philosopher, Adam Smith argued that nations, as well as individuals, gain when they specialize in what they can do best and trade. Not, however, by trading goods for gold, but goods for other goods. "The revenue," he said, "of the person to whom it is paid, does not so properly consists in the piece of gold, as in what he can get for it or in what he can exchange it for" (Smith 499). This h ...