The comparative advantage arguments are not even that great, in my opinion. https://fixingtheeconomists.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/arguments-against-free-trade-an

The comparative advantage arguments are not even that great, in my opinion. https://fixingtheeconomists.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/arguments-against-free-trade-and-comparative-advantage/ https://fixingtheeconomists.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/argumen... >Ricardo took the example of trade between England and Portugal. He argued that England, by allowing imports of wine from Portugal, would expand the production and export of cloth to pay for it. Ricardo, of course, was thinking of the English side of the exchange but the analysis is perfectly symmetrical; it implies that Portugal will gain from specialising on wine and importing cloth. In reality, the imposition of free trade on Portugal killed off a promising textile industry and left her with a slow-growing export market for wine, while for England, exports of cotton cloth led to accumulation, mechanisation and the whole spiraling growth of the industrial revolution.