210

ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES

judice, as well as of the adaptability of goods to serve
definite purposes, is felt. Thus the imported commodity
may find a sale at a higher price than the domestic product
closely similar to it, and the market for the latter be narrowed
in consequence. The conditions of domestic production may
not permit of the precise imitation of the imported goods, so
as to compete with them, or may permit of it only at a cost
which would exclude competition. The converse may also
be true, and the domestic product hold the field against a
cheaper foreign commodity fully able to serve the same
purpose.
One part of the gain from foreign trade, then, consists in
procuring goods not produced by any domestic industry, or
in procuring goods which, though of the same general
character as those which some domestic industry produces,
differ from these in some features which are of importance
in the estimation of the consumer.
Another part of the gain from foreign trade is derived
from the opportunities it affords for procuring commodities
by exchange, and thus permitting the application of a
country’s productive equipment to its most fruitful resources,
without sacrificing the satisfactions which the consumption
of the imported products can afford. These satisfactions are,
many of them, procurable through the direct application of
domestic industry to domestic resources. If they are not so
procured, it must be because there seems to be no sufficient
likelihood of securing them by that means at a cost which
would be repaid by the price procurable for them. The
selection of other industries, to which to apply available
producing powers, may be taken to indicate that the value,
created in that way, gives (or was anticipated to give) a
greater surplus over the values of materials, labour, etc.
sacrificed in its creation, than might be looked for in
applying the whole or a part of that labour in producing
goods to take the place of those imported. If the judgment
of those responsible has not been greatly in error, therefore,
the productive resources of the country yield a greater
return as a result of being able to import some goods instead
of producing them at home.