The remainder of what Mr. Ricardo has done for the philosophical
exposition of the principles of foreign trade, is to shew, that the
truth of the propositions now recapitulated is not affected by the
introduction of money as a medium of exchange; the precious metals
always tending to distribute themselves in such a manner throughout the
commercial world, that every country shall import all that it would have
imported, and export all that it would have exported, if exchanges had
taken place, as in the example above supposed, by barter.

To this branch of the subject we shall, in the sequel of this essay,
return. At present it will be more convenient that we should continue to
suppose, that exchanges take place by the direct trucking of one
commodity against another.

It is established, that the advantage which two countries derive from
trading with each other, results from the more advantageous employment
which thence arises, of the labour and capital--for shortness let us say
the labour--of both jointly. The circumstances are such, that if each
country confines itself to the production of one commodity, there is a
greater total return to the labour of both together; and this increase
of produce forms the whole of what the two countries taken together gain
by the trade.

It is the purpose of the present essay to inquire, in what proportion
the increase of produce, arising from the saving of labour, is divided
between the two countries.

This question was not entered into by Mr. Ricardo, whose attention was
engrossed by far more important questions, and who, having a science to