Background

Today trade is essential to Americas economic growth. For example, 700,00 people are supplied with jobs in just California alone. International trade is more than a way to supply jobs however. International trade is essential because no country can stand on its own without recources from others. The USA needs foriegn oil, Russia needs grain, and China needs foreign markets. Multinational corperations have emerged since the early 1950's, but similar links can be traced to much earlier times. The importance of trade can be traced back to the 1400s with Sub-Saharan trade; it proved to be resourceful and necessary to stimulate economy. The trans- Atlantic slave route and the British East India Trading Company contributed major trade routes and opened up doorways to sucess. However, more currently, multinational corporations in 1971 made up "one fifth of the noncommunist worlds annual income" and they kept on growing from there (p. 1084). The upsurge of multinational corporations is related to the revival of capitalism after World War Two and the industrialization drive. There are three factors that contribute to their sucess- free access to information, marketing skills, no relation to politics. The impact of multinational corporations on third world countries is for the better and the worst. International trade brings in more technology, but the money that is needed to supply that technology is not there.