18 
En 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
Va 
Jag 
in their several products; the countries of the temperate zone, and 
especially those of European culture, have similarly an absolute 
advantage, tho resting perhaps not so preponderantly on physical 
causes. That this is the sort of trade in which a gain accrues unmis- 
takably to both sides has long been admitted. So obvious, indeed, 
is the gain that no attempt has ever been made, at least by the 
peoples of the temperate regions, to hamper it by protective duties 
or other restrictions. But tho this much is readily perceived, few 
understand that trade of this kind offers not merely a possibility of 
clear gain, but a possibility of greatly varying apportionment of the 
gain; that it might be carried on under conditions quite different 
from those familiar to us, and still be to mutual advantage; and 
that the key to the apportionment of advantage is found in the 
money incomes of the people of the exchanging countries. The 
most striking concrete illustration is in the trade between Great 
Britain and British India. The trade is free (some recent restric- 
tions thru import duties are so slight as to be negligible). Money 
incomes are high in Great Britain, low in Indias Those goods 
which are exchanged between them — international goods — sell 
at virtually the same prices in both. Evidently the Englishman, 
with his high money income, is in a better position as purchaser 
of these international goods than is the East Indian with his low 
money income. But this is no necessary feature of the trade. It 
is quite conceivable, and quite consistent with the continuance 
of the trade, that the situations should be reversed : that the East 
Indian, not the Englishman, should have the higher money income 
and the greater share of the possible gain. And it is no less con- 
celvable that money incomes in the two regions should be the same, 
and the gain thus shared equally. The existing situation is not at 
all a necessary outcome from the given conditions, but only one 
among several possibilities; and the significant indication of the 
nature of the outcome which in fact has been reached is the differ- 
ence of money incomes between the exchanging countries.