162 
POLITICAL ECONOMY 
things if all foreign trade were effectively 
interdicted. 
In addition a country usually reaps a benefit 
out of foreign commerce in that it gets 
cheaper things of which it would not be en 
tirely deprived were foreign trade suppressed. 
Generally speaking all exchanging, whether 
intra-national or international, results in 
advantage. People produce what they do not 
want in order to exchange it for what they 
do want, when that happens to be the most 
economical way of attaining gratification. 
But conceivably people may now and then 
be driven by competition into a course of 
action, involving foreign commerce, which 
eventuates in a less economical way of 
satisfying their wants. They may, for 
instance, be induced to divert some labour 
and capital from an industry subject to 
increasing returns with a view to enlarging 
the output from an industry subject to de 
creasing returns ; so that on the whole they 
lose in the long run without knowing it, 
though gains were reaped by traders at each 
step of the exchange. It is theoretically 
conceivable, indeed, that both national 
parties to the exchange might lose. These 
peculiar phenomena are of little or no im 
portance practically, but from the point of