Now, it is true that labor increases ten-fold,
sometimes a hundred-fold, the value of a rough product, that is to
say, expands ten-fold, a hundred-fold, the products of a nation.
Thence it is reasoned, "The production of a bale of cotton causes
workmen of all classes to earn one hundred dollars only. The
conversion of this bale into lace collars raises their profits to ten
thousand dollars; and will you dare to say that the nation is not
more interested in encouraging labor worth ten thousand than that
worth one hundred dollars?"
We forget that international exchanges, no more than individual
exchanges, work by weight or measure. We do not exchange a bale of
cotton for a bale of lace collars, nor a pound of wool in the grease
for a pound of wool in cashmere; but a certain value of one of these
things _for an equal value_ of the other. Now to barter equal value
against equal value is to barter equal work against equal work. It is
not true, then, that the nation which gives for a hundred dollars
cashmere or collars, gains more than the nation which delivers for a
hundred dollars wool or cotton.
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