I am interested who first examined two-person, two-good economy as a situation. In the international trade theory, it is so common to think two-country, two-commodity economy. This is of course the minimum setting for international trade to occur. Then who has started to argue two-person, two-good economy / model as a situation to study exchange process?

I have found in James Mill's Elements of Political Economy (1821) a paragraph like this:

  • To produce exchange, therefore, there must be two countries, and two commodities.  (III.IV.9 )
Similar questions and discussions