110 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
production, because he realises more than 
normal profit on his sales in his own country. 
But this easy elucidation of the mystery 
leaves us the hopeless task of explaining away 
the folly of the producer who, having amassed 
something of a fortune by his operations at 
home, elects to dissipate some or the whole 
of it by carrying on a losing trade with 
foreign customers. Why should he spend 
wealth realised out of his home trade on 
unprofitable trade elsewhere ? 
We must not, however, conclude that because 
this popular explanation is unsound it can 
never pay a monopolist to aim at selling con 
tinuously abroad beneath cost of production. 
We shall see that there is a reasonable account 
of the matter. Now it is evident from the fore 
going that any reasonable account of the matter 
involves proving that the sales abroad leave 
the monopolist better off. With a view 
to proving this let us examine the phrase 
“ sales beneath cost of production ” and 
consider whether it can be interpreted in such 
a way that the making of an immediate gain 
out of producing with the intention of selling 
some portion of the output beneath cost of 
production is not unthinkable. It is apparent 
that cost of production must not mean the 
addition to the monopolist’s aggregate costs