Free trade
Past[edit]
An acceleration in exchange of commodities can help other countries as well[edit]
"Regarding the economic prejudice, it is apparent that whenever the ties between nations become strengthened and the exchange of commodities accelerated, and any economic principle is established in one country, it will ultimately affect the other countries and universal benefits will result. Then why this prejudice?"
- ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Tablet to the Hague; also in Star of the West, vol. 11, issue 8, p. 126; also in Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, sel. 227)
Harm in past excessive protectionism and barriers to trade (and potential for future benefits when these barriers are removed)[edit]
"That a narrow and brutal nationalism, which the post-war theory of self-determination has served to reinforce, has been chiefly responsible for the policy of high and prohibitive tariffs, so injurious to the healthy flow of international trade and to the mechanism of international finance, is a fact which few would venture to dispute."
"With no less than ten million people under arms, drilled and instructed in the use of the most abominable engines of destruction that science has devised; with thrice that number chafing and fretting at the rule of alien races and governments; with an equally vast army of embittered citizens impotent to procure for themselves the material goods and necessities which others are deliberately destroying; with a still greater mass of human beings groaning under the burden of ever-mounting armaments, and impoverished by the virtual collapse of international trade--with evils such as these, humanity would seem to be definitely entering the outer fringes of the most agonizing phase of its existence."
"The enormous energy dissipated and wasted on war, whether economic or political, will be consecrated to such ends as will extend the range of human inventions and technical development, to the increase of the productivity of mankind, to the extermination of disease, to the extension of scientific research, to the raising of the standard of physical health, to the sharpening and refinement of the human brain, to the exploitation of the unused and unsuspected resources of the planet, to the prolongation of human life, and to the furtherance of any other agency that can stimulate the intellectual, the moral, and spiritual life of the entire human race."
Former pride of America in its self-contained economy unable to resist economic hurricane threatening economic life[edit]
"Not even America, which until very recently prided itself on its traditional policy of aloofness and the self-contained character of its economy, the invulnerability of its institutions and the evidences of its growing prosperity and prestige, has been able to resist the impelling forces that have swept her into the vortex of an economic hurricane that now threatens to impair the basis of her own industrial and economic life."
- (Shoghi Effendi, November 28, 1931, Goal of a New World Order, in World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 31)
Present[edit]
Self-sufficiency is no longer possible given (among other things) ever strengthening bonds of trade[edit]
"...all the members of the human family, whether peoples or governments, cities or villages, have become increasingly interdependent. For none is self-sufficiency any longer possible, inasmuch as political ties unite all peoples and nations, and the bonds of trade and industry, of agriculture and education, are being strengthened every day. Hence the unity of all mankind can in this day be achieved."
- (`Abdu'l-Bahá cited by Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 39)
Future (i.e., will be unification of markets)[edit]
All economic barriers will be permanently demolished (in the future)[edit]
"A world community in which all economic barriers will have been permanently demolished..."
"...economic barriers and restrictions will be completely abolished..."
Markets will be coördinated and developed in the future[edit]
"The unity of the human race, as envisaged by Bahá'u'lláh, implies the establishment of a world commonwealth in which all nations, races, creeds and classes are closely and permanently united, and in which the autonomy of its state members and the personal freedom and initiative of the individuals that compose them are definitely and completely safeguarded. This commonwealth must, as far as we can visualize it, consist of a world legislature, whose members will, as the trustees of the whole of mankind, ultimately control the entire resources of all the component nations, and will enact such laws as shall be required to regulate the life, satisfy the needs and adjust the relationships of all races and peoples...The economic resources of the world will be organized, its sources of raw materials will be tapped and fully utilized, its markets will be coördinated and developed, and the distribution of its products will be equitably regulated."
- (Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, pp. 203-204)
Principle of the Oneness of Mankind calls for a world organically unified in its trade and finance[edit]
"The principle of the Oneness of Mankind--the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh revolve--is no mere outburst of ignorant emotionalism or an expression of vague and pious hope...It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world--a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units."
- (Shoghi Effendi, World Order of Bahá'u'lláh, p. 42-43)
There is some truth that if a country with a reasonably high standard of living allow unrestricted commercial and industrial competition to a people accustomed to a lower standard, the standard of living and culture is bound to suffer; need for education to lift standards of both races; compromise is necessary ensuring it is ever being modified and advanced in the direction of justice for all
"With regard to your question about the "White Australia" policy, it is clear that this policy of rigid exclusion of coloured Asiatic races from Australia finds no justification in the Bahá'í Teachings.
"Bahá'u'lláh and `Abdu'l-Bahá taught in the clearest possible way the necessity of getting rid of all racial and national prejudices and of equal justice for men of all races and colours. That a white race should forcibly annex a country previously inhabited exclusively by coloured people and then proceed to forbid the admission of coloured people to that country - especially a country so large as Australia, many parts of which are obviously better suited for coloured races than for white people - is clearly unjust.
"At the same time there is undoubtedly truth in the contention that if, in a country where a reasonably high standard of living, of culture, etc., has been attained, people accustomed to a lower standard of life and culture are freely admitted, and allowed unrestricted rights of commercial and industrial competition, the standard of living and culture in that country is bound to suffer.
"Even if we got rid of racial and colour prejudice, this economic and cultured problem would remain. The Bahá'í method of solving the problem is to educate both the white and coloured races in the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh. The white races must cease to regard themselves as "superior" and as having, by virtue of that innate superiority a right to exploit, take unfair advantage of and even to exterminate coloured races, on the principle of the "survival of the fittest". They must cease to regard the colour of a man's skin as a legitimate index of his "superiority" or "inferiority" and must recognise that a good coloured man (of whom there are many) is better than a bad white man (of whom there are also many). They must adopt a policy of even-handed justice for white and coloured people and recognise that coloured and white people have equally the right to live and to have access to suitable land on which to live. If there are certain parts of the world which by reason of climate are more suited to coloured people than to white, then coloured people ought to have preference in rights of access to such land, if white people have preferential rights in cooler regions, more suited to their health and well-being.
"The "backward" races must be educated and their standard of living and culture be raised as much as possible, their latent talents being developed to the fullest possible extent. If this is done their objectionable characteristics will disappear.
"The so-called "advanced" races however, are by no means free from objectionable characteristics, such as commercial greed, love of domination, materialistic conceptions, want of spirituality. By true education and true religion these also must be got rid of.
"When both the "backward" and the "advanced" races become educated in this way, then such questions as the admission of coloured races to Australian territories will no longer be settled by certain people who have seized such territory dictating to the rest of the world who shall be allowed admission to it, but by an impartial international tribunal in which all sections of the human race shall be fairly represented and which will consider the pressure of population in various regions, the suitability of various regions for the habitation of different peoples, etc., and decide what is best in the interests of humanity as a whole.
"For the satisfactory solution of any one such question we need the progressive application of all the Bahá'í principles. For instance in this case it is clear that racial and national prejudices must be abolished, that universal education is necessary, that a universal league of nations must have an authority superseding that of any one nation, that impartial arbitration must be substituted for domination by powers which are backed by strong armies and navies, that an international language is needed to promote international understanding, that materialism and selfish greed must be replaced by true religion and mutual love, and so on.
"The ideals of the Oneness of God, the oneness of religion and the oneness of humanity must be instilled into the minds of the children throughout the world, and when a generation grows up thoroughly imbued with these great ideals, the solution of the economic and political problems that now cause so much misery, strife and even blood-shed in the world will become easy.
"Meantime in political and economic matters, compromise is necessary but we must use our influence to see that the compromise is ever being modified and advanced in the direction of justice for all - not in the direction of the exclusive advantage of one section of the world's population over others."
This text is not known whether it may possibly be authentic or in the category of Pilgrim's notes- (Attributed as being on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Antipodes, 19 April 1925)
