Essays on some unsettled Questions of Political EconomyMill, John Stuart
PhilosophyPhilosophy
Essays on some unsettled Questions of Political Economy
Mill, John Stuart
Economics
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
of the importation diminish. As cloth fell in price and linen rose,
there would be some particular price of both articles at-which the cloth
exported, and the linen imported, would exactly pay for each other. At
this point prices would remain, because money would then cease to move
out of England into Germany. What this point might be, would entirely
depend upon the circumstances and inclinations of the purchasers on both
sides. If the fall of cloth did not much increase the demand for it in
Germany, and the rise of linen did not diminish very rapidly the demand
for it in England, much money must pass before the equilibrium is
restored; cloth would fall very much, and linen would rise, until
England, perhaps, had to pay nearly as much for it as when she produced
it for herself. But if, on the contrary, the fall of cloth caused a very
rapid increase of the demand for it in Germany, and the rise of linen in
Germany reduced very rapidly the demand in England from what it was
under the influence of the first cheapness produced by the opening of
the trade; the cloth would very soon suffice to pay for the linen,
little money would pass between the two countries, and England would
derive a large portion of the benefit of the trade. We have thus arrived
at precisely the same conclusion, in supposing the employment of money,
which we found to hold under the supposition of barter.
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