But without comparative advantage, there’s no profit to seize (relative to a world where goods never change hands).
Just because there’s no profit to seize doesn’t mean that goods won’t move from one person to the other if the person who wants to use the goods uses coercive force.
While I’m not certain to what extend it’s true, from time to time I heard the claim that the British didn’t get net profit from colonization. It’s possible that they still did it because they believed it would be good for them even when it wasn’t profitable.
Just because there’s no profit to seize doesn’t mean that goods won’t move from one person to the other if the person who wants to use the goods uses coercive force.
Right, this is exactly why I talk about goods moving bidirectionally. If someone is just straight-up seizing goods by force, then there’s no reason for goods to move back in the other direction. So, if the profit requires goods moving bidirectionally, then that indicates some relative advantage is involved somewhere.
Just because there’s no profit to seize doesn’t mean that goods won’t move from one person to the other if the person who wants to use the goods uses coercive force.
While I’m not certain to what extend it’s true, from time to time I heard the claim that the British didn’t get net profit from colonization. It’s possible that they still did it because they believed it would be good for them even when it wasn’t profitable.
Right, this is exactly why I talk about goods moving bidirectionally. If someone is just straight-up seizing goods by force, then there’s no reason for goods to move back in the other direction. So, if the profit requires goods moving bidirectionally, then that indicates some relative advantage is involved somewhere.
You need to go to another place to loot the place and that usually involves transporting personal, weapons and equipment.
Most wars where there’s no net profit but a lot of capital lost include some bidirectional flow of goods.