manner that the quantities required by each country, of the article
which it imports from its neighbour, shall be exactly sufficient to pay
for one another. As the inclinations and circumstances of consumers
cannot be reduced to any rule, so neither can the proportions in which
the two commodities will be interchanged. We know that the limits within
which the variation is confined are the ratio between their costs of
production in the one country, and the ratio between their costs of
production in the other. Ten yards of cloth cannot exchange for more
than 20 yards of linen, nor for less than 15. But they may exchange for
any intermediate number. The ratios, therefore, in which the advantage
of the trade may be divided between the two nations, are various. The
circumstances on which the proportionate share of each country more
remotely depends, admit only of a very general indication.

It is even possible to conceive an extreme case, in which the whole of
the advantage resulting from the interchange would be reaped by one
party, the other country gaining nothing at all. There is no absurdity
in the hypothesis, that of some given commodity a certain quantity is
all that is wanted at any price, and that when that quantity is
obtained, no fall in the exchangeable value would induce other consumers
to come forward, or those who are already supplied to take more. Let us
suppose that this is the case in Germany with cloth. Before her trade
with England commenced, when 10 yards of cloth cost her as much labour
as 20 yards of linen, she nevertheless consumed as much cloth as she
wanted under any circumstances, and if she could obtain it at the rate
of 10 yards of cloth for 15 of linen, she would not consume more. Let
this fixed quantity be 1000 times 10 yards. At the rate, however, of 10
for 20, England would want more linen than would be equivalent to this
quantity of cloth. She would consequently offer a higher value for
linen; or, what is the same thing, she would offer her cloth at a