CHAPTER 13 
Duties oN IMPORTS AND THE BARTER TERMS oF TRADE 
IT would be possible to carry much further the sort of analysis 
which has been undertaken in the preceding chapters. The fact 
that each country deals not with one other only, but with many, 
would lead to modifications or elaborations over and above those 
already considered. The competition of various countries as 
buyers and sellers obviously has the effect of limiting more nar- 
rowly the range within which the barter terms of trade may vary; 
the terms of trade become dependent not on the demand schedules 
of any pair or trio of countries, but on those of all the trading coun- 
tries combined. So much goes without saying. 
More intricate are the possibilities in another direction. The 
imposition of taxes on imports and exports may affect the barter 
terms of trade — almost surely will do so. A tax on imports is 
equivalent to a deliberate lessening by the taxing country of its 
demand for foreign products. A tax on exports is equivalent to 
calling on other countries to decide whether they will continue to 
lay out as much as before on the taxing country’s products. These 
may be described as intentional deflections of the play of demand ; 
and they may be analyzed as having different effects according 
to the way in which they are levied — whether as taxes in kind, 
or (of course the only way that signifies in practice) as taxes in 
money. The effects which taxes may have on the volume of inter- 
national trade and on the barter terms of trade have been the 
occasion of some of the most ingenious and intricate theoretical 
reasoning, and some most remarkable manifestations of casuistic 
ability. 
I shall not attempt to refine further in the theoretical analysis. 
In doing so, there is always danger of lapsing into intellectual 
gymnastics. The suppositions made are sometimes improbable 
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