ABSTRACT
Barren exports are not always the by-products of excessive subventions sometimes they represent the side-effects of price controls. Inimical consequences can ensue under both conditions when governments encourage export prices to be below or above domestic prices. The mercantilists, obsessed as were with exports, nevertheless considered it in the national interest to ban some exports the prohibitions were also applied to skilled workers. Exports of machinery may bestow benefits on the economy in the year in which they are dispatched and paid for. Brains can also be exported by circuitous routes. Among the numerous populist brickbats hurled at multis is the charge that they rarely carry out R&D in the host country of their foreign subsidiaries. If the mercantilist-Wilson-Ceausescu attitude to the export of brains and skills has any validity, then surely the host countries ought to be grateful for this shortcoming of their corporate guests.
