FACTORS OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION 131 



advantage which have economized their natural resources and 

 developed their primary industries to the greatest degree. 



This is not to be construed into an argument against foreign 

 trade or in favor of national isolation. There are two situations 

 under which a nation may thrive, for a time at least, by foreign 

 trade. The first situation is that where the nation buys its raw 

 material from abroad, manufactures it into finished products, 

 and sells these again in foreign markets, maintaining itself on 

 the profits of the transaction. This, as was shown in preceding 

 pages, is an exceedingly attractive method wherever it is pos- 

 sible, or wherever foreign markets are sufficiently wide, because 

 there is no physical limit to the wealth of such a country, or to 

 the population which it can support. A nation whose popula- 

 tion is increasing, and which tries to maintain this increase in 

 numbers by manufacturing and commerce alone, without devel- 

 oping its own natural resources, will find itself approaching this 

 condition. But this is a dangerous situation. Saying nothing of 

 the possibility of wars and other disturbances which may cut off 

 the supply of raw material or close markets to the finished prod- 

 ucts, there still remain such things as tariff barriers, embargoes, 

 and other hostile acts of legislation which may have the same 

 results. Again, this is a situation which obviously could not 

 possibly be maintained by any considerable number of nations, 

 because there would be no foreign markets of sufficient size left. 

 Even a single nation could flourish under this situation only so 

 long as there were undeveloped nations not yet in a position to 

 manufacture for themselves, unless it happened to possess very 

 exceptional advantages, such as water power or coal fields, far 

 superior to those of any of its rivals. 



The second situation under which a nation may thrive by 

 foreign trade is one wherein it exchanges the products of its 

 own land, either raw or in a finished state, for whose produc- 

 tion its land is especially fitted, for the products of other lands, 



