COMPARATIVE COSTS

33

of demand, — on the relation in each country between the conditions
 of demand both for the domestic product and for the foreign
product — those conditions of relative demand have been supposed
 to alter in the one country, but not in the other.
In all this, be it noted, it is the changes in prices and in money
incomes which serve to bring about the eventual results. Under
the modified conditions brought about by an increase in the German
demand for wheat, the concrete form in which advantage comes to
the United States is that money incomes are higher, prices of
imported goods (linen) are lower. And for the Germans the concrete
 form in which the disadvantage to them appears is that
money incomes are lower, prices of imported goods (wheat) are
higher. The quicker the flow of specie begins and the more prompt
its influence on prices and incomes, the sooner will the readjustment
 work itself out. The whole chain of operations depends on
monetary movements and monetary influences; a fact which cannot
 be too strongly emphasized when it comes to a testing or
verification of the whole series of propositions presented in their
simplest theoretic formulation.