Rich Karlgaard makes an original and forceful argument in favor of global free trade by insisting it promotes human creativity and development.

He cites the marvel of human achievement in different areas and the great human good of developing one’s talents fully, something that doesn’t always happen because it’s a huge threat to oppressors. In this regard, free trade is always supremely revolutionary and subversive to tyrants.

When I spent time in martial law Poland under its communist oppressors in 1982, I was a teenager, and the one thing that struck me, a college student on the edge of starting life, a life full of choices and opportunities and freedom, was that every one of my Polish peers had their life ruined in some way by this communism – they were unable to travel, to get the schooling they wanted, to develop their talents, to be who they wanted to be, to speak and think as they felt. It was a horrible revelation when one sees it up close, applied to people I knew. Communism offered my peers absolutely nothing and was pointlessly evil. That was the one thing I took back from my trip to Poland and it had nothing to do with all my book learning on the matter in school. Anka and Adam and Danuta and Darius – would never be able to be who they wanted to be as I would because of the monstrous regime they lived under and had no choice but to rebel under, too. They finally succeeded seven years later.

That’s why this Karlgaard essay resonates with me so much. Karlgaard goes through various historic periods, (and ought to have argued this better because the facts support his case more than he realizes), citing era after era, and then notes that most renaissances of creativity in human civilizations have some link to the opening of trade. The cultural glories of the British empire, which successfully blended Chinese, Malay, Indian, Persian, African and Argentinian cultural elements are one example of what free trade creates. But there are even bigger examples he didn’t cite, like the flowering of China under the Southern Sung Dynasty, the world’s first and only tax-free, free trade empire (the government supported itself by engaging in free trade itself) which saw an explosion of human creativity in areas as diverse as paper money, fireworks, textiles, porcelain, all the products of free trade. All by just leaving people alone and not bothering them with taxes, paperwork, identity cards, reeducation sessions, indoctrination – nothing! Not only that, the Southern Sung free-trade empire also fostered the development of human kindness, something Marco Polo (The Original Free Trader!!!) had significantly noticed when he stumbled upon the vast glory of China, stupefied at its achievement, and then went home and ignited a global movement toward exploration and trade leading to the Age of Discovery.

China’s just one example, but how could we not appreciate the blended culture of Mexico? The great Manila-Acapulco galleon route (which took goods overland through Veracruz to ship to Spain) transformed Mexican culture – some of the peppers in the food, the diaphonous and fringed clothing of the Mexican states, the blue tiles of Mexico’s pottery (an adaptation to local materials), the architecture – all bear a great debt to the amazing Manila-Acapulco galleon trade that did so much to give Mexico its rich culture. And enriched Asia too! Much of China’s ancient silver is of Mexico orgin, as is the cuisine of Philippines and Thailand, some of which uses Mexican and other Latin American ingredients.

Karlgaard calls this a moral case for free trade and exuberantly appreciates all kinds of human achievement. For that, I love this essay. Read the whole thing here.

Hat tip: Real Clear Politics