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To what does Singapore owe its success? To answer this question, it is necessary to look at Singapore’s earlier history – an area that has largely been neglected in mainstream discourse but extensively explored by historians. A look into the early development of Singapore unveils its steep and robust foundations in free trade.

The “protectionist” view is that people are actually not individuals but part of a collective entity, a nation or state or people, that has a prior claim on them over and above their own interests and welfare. The division between free trade and protection is actually one of the main aspects of the much deeper contrast and division between individualism and collectivism. The view anyone takes of this matter reveals something about their basic foundational assumptions and beliefs in ways that few other questions do.

“If soldiers are not to cross international boundaries, goods must do so. Unless the shackles can be dropped from trade, bombs will drop from the sky.”— Otto T. Mallery

The question of why some countries are rich and prosperous whereas others seem to be condemned to the scourge of poverty has been around for centuries. Many factors have been argued to be the determinants of prosperity: geographical, cultural, historical, among others. Estonia is the living example that human progress is closely linked to economic freedom.

In the mid-1980s, New Zealand was facing an economic crisis, with its domestic market and international trade both heavily regulated. Unemployment had reached 11 percent, and inflation was a sky-high 15 percent. Today, New Zealand is a model of international free trade policy.

Iranians are asking for human rights and economic freedom. That sounds like liberty. Iran is infamously known for their abundant human rights violations. Basic civil and political rights have deteriorated since 1979, after the Islamic Revolution successfully implemented the current regime.

Mercantilism has experienced a deplorable revival with the emergence of 21st-century protectionism. Socialists, under whatever semantic guise they prefer, have always had protectionist inclinations. Instead, what characterizes 21st-century protectionism is populist proselytes propagating pernicious delusions about free trade.

Economists have known that international trade enhances the wealth of trading nations since the publication of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations in 1776. In fact, probably no other topic commands as much agreement among economists today.