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Essays on some unsettled Questions of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill
page 17 of 163 (10%)
value of money. Let us suppose, therefore, that before the opening of
the trade, the price of cloth is the same in both countries, namely, six
shillings per yard [2]. As 10 yards of cloth were supposed to exchange in
England for 5 yards of linen, in Germany for 20, we must suppose that
linen is sold in England at four shillings per yard, in Germany at
three. Cost of carriage and importer's profit are left as before, out of
consideration.

In this state of prices, cloth, it is evident, cannot yet be exported
from England into Germany. But linen can be imported from Germany into
England. It will be so, and, in the first instance, the linen will be
paid for in money.

The efflux of money from England, and its influx into Germany, will
raise money prices in the latter country, and lower them in the former.
Linen will rise in Germany above three shillings per yard, and cloth
above six shillings. Linen in England being imported from Germany, will
(since cost of carriage is not reckoned) sink to the same price as in
that country, while cloth will fall below six shillings. As soon as the
price of cloth is lower in England than in Germany, it will begin to be
exported, and the price of cloth in Germany will fall to what it is in
England. As long As the cloth exported does not suffice to pay for the
linen imported, money will continue to flow from England into Germany,
and prices generally will continue to fall in England, and rise in
Germany. By the fall, however, of cloth in England, cloth will fall in
Germany also, and the demand for it will increase. By the rise of linen
in Germany, linen must rise in England also, and the demand for it will
diminish. Although the increased exportation of cloth takes place at a
lower price, and the diminished importation of linen at a higher, yet
the total money value of the exportation would probably increase, that
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