Gracia Gilreath, Chapter 12, Question 6

The passage that I found most interesting was the passage that used the analogy of trade across the Mississippi River to compare with trade across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The idea of the analogy consists of cutting off trade between the east and west side of the Mississippi in order to see if it would be beneficial or have a negative impact. Consequently, both sides would be lacking the resources that the other side previously provided, so they would be forced to now produce these resources themselves. This does create new jobs, which stimulates the economy, however, the skills of the workers do not match these need found jobs, resulting in less productivity. This example was proposed in order to make the claim that "cutting off trade leaves a country poorer and less productive."