Unequal Exchange: A Study of the Imperialism of Trade (Updated Edition)

Neo-colonialism continues to run rampant, as a few nations continue to grow rich at the expense of the rest. Traditional doctrine, resting on Ricardo’s theory of comparative costs, has dominated investigation of this problem for a century-and-a-half, and has proven itself incapable of providing any answer to the inequality that arises as a result of free trade within a global capitalist system.

Arghiri Emmanuel’s pathbreaking study, now a classic, upends the conventional assumptions, subjecting the phenomena of international trade to critical scrutiny, both systematically and with logical rigor. It integrates the theory of international value (and unequal exchange) into the general theory of value as propounded by the classical economists and Marx.

Emmanuel’s theory of unequal exchange generated widespread world debate on its first appearance, part of which, emanating from French economist Charles Bettelheim, is included in this volume. It has remained the foundation of critical analysis of international exchange relations ever since and has gained even more importance today in the age of global value chains.

First published in English in 1972 and long out of print, Monthly Review Press is proud to reissue this updated edition with a new foreword by Emmanuel protégé, Torkil Lauesen, and a new introduction by John Bellamy Foster and Brett Clark.

Praise for Unequal Exchange