Page:Tales in Political Economy by Millicent Garrett Fawcett.djvu/110

 she attempted to produce these foreign goods on her own soil; just as everyone who earns his own living can best obtain the necessaries and comforts of life by applying himself to the one particular occupation in which he can do his best: he exchanges the result of his labour for the result of the labour of other people, and by this means a person of quite ordinary capacity obtains a degree of comfort and luxury which no man, however clever and however industrious he might be, could furnish himself with if he relied solely on what he was able to produce directly with his own labour.

In the example just given of the exchange of boots and matting between Isle Pleasant and San Francisco, it was shown that both places gained by the establishment of the trade. The islanders got their boots at one-fourth, and the San Franciscans their matting at one-half of the previous cost. But it must not be supposed that this benefit was obtained quite free of all counterbalancing disadvantages. The