mercantilism,Beggar thy neighbour, or beggar-my-neighbour,set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil

 

All too often the gallows became the place where the waste and nuisance products of mercantilism—the hungry, poor and far-from-home—were efficiently dispatched

A historian links public hangings with trade cycles

From the archive

ECONOMIST.COM

 set a beggar on horseback and he'll ride to the Devil

• proverb someone unaccustomed to power or luxury will abuse or be corrupted by it.

 

以鄰為壑“beggar-thy-neighbor” strategy

諾獎得主：量化寬鬆沒用 還是學學中國
諾貝爾經濟學獎獲得者斯蒂格利茨說﹐美聯儲的量化寬鬆政策只是“以鄰為壑”的貨幣貶值策略﹐美國應該學習中國的經濟刺激藝術。

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, dismissing the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing as a “beggar-thy-neighbor” strategy of currency devaluation, called on America to learn the art of stimulus from China.



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Beggar thy neighbour, or beggar-my-neighbour, is an expression in economics describing policy that seeks benefits for one country at the expense of others. Such policies attempt to remedy the economic problems in one country by means which tend to worsen the problems of other countries.

Contents [hide] 1 Original application 2 Extended application 3 Economics use 4 Other uses 5 See also 6 References

Original application

The term was originally devised to characterize policies of trying to cure domestic depression and unemployment by shifting effective demand away from imports onto domestically produced goods, either through tariffs and quotas on imports, or by competitive devaluation. The policy can be associated with mercantilism and the resultant barriers to pan-national single markets.

Extended application

"Beggar thy neighbour" strategies of this kind don't apply only to countries: overgrazing provides another example, where the pursuit by individuals or groups of their own interests leads to problems. This dynamic has been called the "tragedy of the commons," though it appears as early as the works of Plato and Aristotle.
According to economist Joan Robinson "beggar they neighbour" policies were widely adopted by major economies during the Great depression of the 1930s. ^[1]
The phrase is in widespread use, and is used in such publications as The Economist^[2] and BBC News^[3]. The term presumably originates from the name of the Beggar-My-Neighbour card game.

重商主義 (mercantilism)是在15世紀到18世紀之間盛行的經濟理論、經濟政策。^[1]重商主義是民族主義在經濟上的一種形式。它的目標是最大限度的使國家富足與強盛，藉由獲取並留下盡量多的境內經濟活動。製造和工業，特別是有軍事用途的商品，佔有優先地位。重商主義試圖確保國家能夠生產盡可能多的量與種類，藉此限制本國對外國供應商的依賴。封閉經濟是重商主義的重要元素。上述目標主要靠著以下方法達成：

1. 對成品的進口施以高關稅。對原料的進口施以低關稅。
2. 對成品的出口施以低關稅。對原料的出口施以高關稅。
3. 尋找國內製造產品的新市場，藉以提高國內生產的需求。

這些政策通常導致正的貿易餘額，導致貴金屬的累積。