This article accepts the dependency school's emphasis on analysing characteristics of the international capitalist system as necessary for understanding the causes of underdevelopment. The competitive advantages of industrial producers in developed countries are outlined, together with the limitations on the potential for ‘late’ industrialisation in peripheral economies, particularly those such as the Republic of Ireland which have a relationship of virtual free trade with developed economies. While a large inflow of new export‐oriented foreign‐owned industries has occurred in Ireland since the introduction of outward‐looking policies in the late l950s, most of the rest of the industrial sector seems limited by competition from the developed economies. Moreover, since the inflow into Ireland of new foreign‐owned industries has been so large because of the unusually attractive conditions there, the stagnation in the rest of the industrial sector is an indication of the general prospects for peripheral economies under outward‐looking policies relying mainly on private enterprise.