David Bergland on free trade and peace

Free trade is a powerful inducement to international peace.  Any time a trade barrier is removed, increased trade follows and the people who engage in it are more prosperous.  When people in different countries are able to trade freely with each other, they do not want their beneficial trade relationships interrupted by war.

It is an interesting historical fact that the U.S. government has never gone to war with another government while free trade relationships existed between them.  History also shows us that governments tend to follow the lead of other governments where trade barriers are concerned...  Removing trade restrictions would be the single most efficient way to improve the prosperity of Americans and others, and to improve the relationships between Americans and people of different countries.

~ David Bergland, Libertarianism in One Lesson, pp. 33-34