The  advantage  to  be  derived  by  the  inter-national  distribution
of  employments,  and  the  foreign  trade  by  which  its  exchanges


ON   EXCITEMENTS   TO    INDUSTRY.  125

are  effected^  is  our  being  enabled  thereby  to  supply  ourselves
with  articles  which  either  could  not  be  procured  at  home^  or
could  not  be  procured  of  such  qualities  at  so  cheap  a  rate.  If
the  foreign  trade  does  not  procure  to  a  nation  a  larger  and  bet-
ter supply  than  the  home  trade  would  afford^  it  is  the  public
interest  that  it  should  be  given  up.  Foreigners  must  pay  as
much  for  our  goods  as  may  enable  cUl  the  parties  concerned  in
the  trade^  workmen  as  well  as  masters^  to  procure  as  great  a
quantity  of  the  articles  of  life  as  they  might  do  by  applying
their  industry  to  the  production  of  the  articles  themselves.
If  they  pay  less  than  this,  a  public  loss  is  sustained  by  supply-
ing them.  On  the  other  hand,  if  a  larger  and  better  supply  is
procured  from  them,  than  could  be  produced  by  the  exertion
of  our  own  industry,  it  is  the  public  interest  to  keep  up  the  in-
ter-national division  of  employments  by  which  this  better  supply
IS  acquired.  According  to  the  extent  of  this  division,  must  be
the  amount  of  foreign  commerce.  This  extent  depends  on  cir-
cumstances altogether  different  from  the  rate  of  wages ;  indeed
its  increase  uniformly  causes  the  rewards  of  labour  to  rise.  The
only  way  in  which  the  rate  of  wages  in  particular  trades  affects
foreign  commerce,  is  by  determining  the  kinds  of  commodities
that  shall  be  selected  for  exportation  in  preference  to  others.
