| Sumario: | This paper attempts to investigate some recent contributions to the theory of international trade which are closely related to economist Lloyd Metzler's widely shared opinion which states that "the practical conduct of international trade is much more a problem of negotiation and compromise than the classical economists believed." These contributions are based upon the central idea that the economic judgments of those in control of a country's international trade can be given formal theoretical expression, and the advocates of the new approach purport to provide us with a clear-cut graphical representation of the economizing activities of ruthless and short-sighted national states. Their methodology relies upon curves of reciprocal demand and community indifference which were first developed by economists Alfred Marshall and Francis Y. Edgeworth. In his the book "Money, Credit and Commerce," Marshall was able to express the international commodity supplies and demands of two countries in "bale units" whose embodiments of resources remain constant even though the actual commodity composition of trade is constantly changing. Edgeworth, who was familiar with Marshall's method long before it appeared in "Money, " indicated in a preliminary way how unity indifference curves could be used on the Marshallian plane.
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