ABSTRACT
Despite the restrictions on foreign trade which existed in one form or another from the end of World War II to 1960, the total value of the merchandise exports of the non-Communist countries rose from $53,300 million in 1948 to $112,300 million in 1960, or at an average annual growth rate of over 6 per cent. This was a remarkable achievement, especially when it is realized that the prices of traded commodities were about the same in 1960 as they had been in 1948. From 1960 to 1973, growth rates were even higher, at an average annual rate for the volume of exports of around 8 per cent. But 1973 marked the end of the rapid growth of exports, the annual increase dropping to average around 4.5 per cent from 1973 to 1979, to 1.5 per cent from 1980 to 1989, and then rising to 4.5 per cent in 1990-95. The rates were still high in most years, however, when compared with the rate of growth of world trade from the beginning of the nineteenth century to 1950. From 1950 to 1995, the volume of world trade fell in only three years, in 1958, 1975 and 1982.
