Whilst this competition goes on, the price of the commodity falls, a larger consumption takes place and new purchasers will arise, which for a time checks the fall. Ultimately, his rivals in the trade either remove their capital into other lines of business, or adopt the improved process. In the mean time the first discoverer will, if a prudent and industrious man, have realized a considerable capital, for he will be fully aware that in the present state of science no monopoly can be permanent. He will rather seek for a succession of moderate improvements, which exciting no immediate inquiry or rivalry, shall increase the average per centage of his profits, thus constantly keeping his manufactory one, or at the utmost, only two steps in advance of his competitors. When in consequence of such an improvement, a reduced price and an enlarged demand has arisen in his own country, the manufacturer will naturally make inquiries whether at this diminished price other countries may not be induced to become purchasers. If this is the case, the fact of their free interchange with him proves that they can acquire his commodity at a less cost than they can themselves produce it. But although the Exposition itself could not and ought not to have been attempted for the sole benefit of this country, it is almost certain that England will reap the greatest share of its advantages. This will arise from the more extended system of her commerce, and from the habits of her people. The profits of the merchant, other circumstances being equal, depend upon the amount of his capital. Similarly, the knowledge brought back by the traveller in foreign countries, or derived from his observation in his own, will mainly depend on the stock of information he carried with him to give in exchange. § To arrive at those principles by which the Exposition ought to be regulated, it becomes necessary to examine the nature and extent of the interests involved. In all interchanges there are three distinct parties concerned— The Consumer, The Middle-man, The Producer. The overwhelming superiority both in amount of capital and in the number of the first of these classes, the _Consumer_, is at once apparent, and ought throughout the inquiry to be steadily borne in mind. In fact, each individual of the other two classes is necessarily a member of the first; for all men are _consumers_, and as such their common bond of interest is to purchase every thing in the _cheapest_ market. § The class _Producer_ is equally indispensable for the purposes of exchange, but its number is much more limited. The interest of each individual producer is, that he should sell his _own_ produce at as dear a price as possible, whilst he purchases that of all other producers as cheaply as he can.