Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/101

 money after his next voyage to the owners of the goods exported to California, but to spend the price of the goods in things that could be produced at a greater advantage there than on the island. As this system of trade became general, little or no money passed between the island and San Francisco; the exports being made to pay for the imports without the transfer of coin from one country to another. It will be seen that both San Francisco and Isle Pleasant were benefited by trade carried on in this manner, for the island now shared in those commodities which San Francisco had a special advantage in producing, whilst San Francisco enjoyed a similar benefit in sharing those articles for the production of which the island was specially well adapted. Thus in the old days before any foreign trade was established, it took an islander the labour of eight days to produce a very rough and clumsy pair of boots; now by getting them in San Francisco, he could obtain them by sending there as much plantain flour as cost him four days' labour. Measured in the labour necessary to obtain them, the