Countries, therefore, which do not enjoy these
advantages, must gain by commerce with those which do; because the
exchanges of commerce are between _labor and labor_, subtraction being
made of all the natural advantages which are combined with these
labors; and it is evidently the most favored countries which can
incorporate into a given labor the largest proportion of these
_natural advantages_. Their produce representing less labor, receives
less recompense; in other words, is _cheaper_. If then all the
liberality of Nature results in cheapness, it is evidently not the
producing, but the consuming country, which profits by her benefits.
Hence we may see the enormous absurdity of the consuming country,
which rejects produce precisely because it is cheap. It is as though
we should say: "We will have nothing of that which Nature gives you.
You ask of us an effort equal to two, in order to furnish ourselves
with produce only attainable at home by an effort equal to four. You
can do it because with you Nature does half the work. But we will have
nothing to do with it; we will wait till your climate, becoming more
inclement, forces you to ask of us a labor equal to four, and then we
can treat with you _upon an equal footing_!"
A is a favored country; B is maltreated by Nature.
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