106 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
the home price, but at a price beneath cost 
of production, whatever that may mean. 
A dense obscurity enshrouds popular con 
ceptions of the problem of dumping, and 
rough-and-ready explanations of the matter 
have rather added to than detracted from the 
obscurity. In order properly to understand 
dumping it is well to distinguish at the outset 
between different kinds of dumping. 
There is, firstly, the dumping of surpluses. 
By a surplus we must understand a quantity 
of output which would never have been 
produced had the price for which it was 
necessary to sacrifice it been foreseen. In 
view of our inevitable ignorance of future 
demand, it is unavoidable that production 
should repeatedly exceed or fall short of the 
amount which would have been aimed at had 
coming conditions been accurately antici 
pated, and it is evident that the monopolist 
will so frame his decisions that at least he 
will not be short of the amount which would 
maximise his net gains. Consequently, sur 
pluses arise frequently, and are more likely 
than not. A few moments’ thought should 
convince the reader that, given such a surplus, 
the monopolist who is simply pursuing his 
self-interest would probably be well advised 
not to lower his home price and sell the whole