Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/107

 Francisco, for there a pair of boots can be obtained in exchange for five yards of matting. Now if this is the case, it is obvious that a trade in these two articles might be set up between the two countries, and would be very advantageous to both. We will suppose that the islanders send their matting to San Francisco, and that in the first instance they obtain for it the full value of matting, measured in boots, that prevails in that country. This, as we have seen, is at the rate of five yards of matting for one pair of boots, or eight times as high a value as the matting obtains in the island. But if the trade is conducted in this way, San Francisco does not obtain any advantage from it; she does not get her matting any cheaper than she did before, and she will have no inducement unless she gains something on the transaction beyond what she previously obtained to send away her leather goods to a foreign country. The islanders, therefore, will find that if they are to obtain a market in San Francisco for all the matting they are willing