ABSTRACT
Two commodities respectively of English and American production, each worth £1000, exchange for each other, and therefore represent equal values in international trade. The cost would be low relatively to the value in the trades in which wages and profits were high, high in the trades in which they were low, while the relation would be one of equality where the rates of wages and profits were equal on each side. A more frequent and important case is that in which the monopoly is strict, but one-sided, or, if existing on both sides, only strict on one side, while it is qualified on the other. This species of monopoly is largely exemplified in the trade between tropical and temperate countries, and again in that between the gold-producing districts of the earth and the countries which trade with them. The transactions of international trade are of course carried on through the medium of money—that is to say, of gold and silver.
