142 POLITICAL ECONOMY 



that which he wants least. This is merely a paraphrase of the 

 free- trade maxim often quoted now as if it were the ne plus ultra 

 of cynical egotism buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest 

 market. 



If commerce were confined to direct simple barter between 

 producer and consumer the word ' profit ' would never be appli- 

 cable. A man cannot become rich in the ordinary sense by 

 direct barter. He reaps a benefit. He does not make a profit. 

 This profit is a word derived from money transactions with the 

 help of middlemen who neither produce nor consume the articles 

 in which they trade. Let us not think of them to-day but ex- 

 amine how men might be rich and become rich if all men were 

 simply producers and consumers dealing with one another by 

 exchange. Let us see whether under these very simple con- 

 ditions wealth would of necessity be gained only by the loss of 

 others. 



It is not possible to show in a short article any clear picture 

 of the vastly complex system of trade which has taken the place 

 of simple barter, but it may be possible to show how by simple 

 barter in a limited community every one is better off than he would 

 be without it, and that nevertheless even in this primitive state of 

 things we might have rich and poor though no man ever gave 

 anything without receiving that which he deliberately preferred. 



Let us conceive a little elementary community of say five 

 families, isolated in a little fertile island, all honest people and 

 each taking up a distinct branch of production farmers fishers 

 hunters weavers and carpenters. They can read and write 

 and keep accounts, using bits of slate for the purpose. They are in 

 easy circumstances because each family can with moderate labour 

 turn out considerably more of its own produce than is required 

 by the whole community. One sixpence is the whole coin of 

 that realm. They reckon prices in pence and in early days con- 

 ducted their business in rather a clumsy fashion. The weaver 

 bought six-pennyworth of grain, the farmer six-pennyworth of 

 fish, the fisherman six-pennyworth of cloth, and round went the 

 sixpence, starting from the weaver and coming back to him. 

 But the weaver wanted more grain and had to begin again at 

 once, buying another six-pennyworth. The farmer this time 

 bought six-pennyworth of venison, and the hunter six-penny- 



