ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to identify the main economic and political factors necessary to any understanding of the problems relating to international trade in the modern world. There is, indeed, a vast difference between trade in Homeric times and international trade in the difficult economic environment of our time. Even so, the quotation from the Odyssey illustrates a number of points which can help us to understand why people and governments behave in the way they do when trading with one another.
