BY E. M. JOHNSTON, F.L.S. 165 



stoppage of food exchanges for manufactures so long as the 

 food-producing country is tempted by cheapness to buy those 

 of the food-lacking country in preference to making them for 

 herself ; or of buying them from a rival manufacturing 

 country on still more advantageous terms, 



Feee Tkade. 

 A food-lacking country must therefore favour free inter- 

 change of trade, for it is necessary to her existence. A 

 country with ample natural sources unutilised or partly 

 utilised would only suffer a temporary inconvenience by the 

 cessation of imports of foreign manufactures, and it is 

 possible that this inconvenience which forced her to supply 

 her own wants from sources and agencies within her own 

 borders might result in increasing the amount of satisfactions 

 for each consumer with an expenditure of a smaller amount 

 of exertion on the part of each producer and distributor. 



Aggregate Wealth and Individual Wealth. 



But let us again return to the outward indices of the 

 prosperity of the United Kingdom. Admitting that she has 

 great wealth in the aggregate, it does not necessarily follow 

 that the share of satisfactions falling to the bulk of her 

 people compare favourably with countries whose aggregate 

 wealth is comparatively small. In point of fact any aggregate 

 respecting the wealth of a country is a pure abstraction. It 

 is as such enjoyed by no one. It is the share falling on the 

 average to each individual which is the true indication of real 

 wealth, or of the satisfactions enjoyed by the unit. 



This is significantly demonstrated by contrasting two 

 widely differing countries in respect of that abstract idea 

 called national wealth : — 



