Inthecasejustnowsupposed，ofacompetitionbetweenEnglandandFrance，thestateofinternationalvaluesaffectedbothcompetitorsalike，sincetheyweresupposedtotradewiththesamecountry，andtoexportandimportthesamecommodities。
Thedifference，therefore，inwhattheirimportscostthem，dependedsolelyontheothercause，theunequalefficiencyoftheirlabour。Theygavethesamequantities;thedifferencecouldonlybeinthecostofproduction。ButifEnglandtradedtoGermanywithcloth，andFrancewithiron，thecomparativedemandinGermanyforthosetwocommoditieswouldbearashareindeterminingthecomparativecost，inlabourandcapital，withwhichEnglandandFrancewouldobtainGermanproducts。IfironweremoreindemandinGermanythancloth，Francewouldrecover，throughthatchannel，partofherdisadvantage;ifless，herdisadvantagewouldbeincreased。Theefficiency，therefore，ofacountry’slabour，isnottheonlythingwhichdetermineseventhecostatwhichthatcountryobtainsimportedcommodities——whileithasnosharewhateverindeterminingeithertheirexchangevalue，or，asweshallpresentlysee，theirprice。
NOTES:
1。Supra，bookiii，chap。ii。section4。
2。Itmaybeasked，whywehavesupposedthenumberntohaveasitsextremelimits，mand2m（orp/qm）？whymaynotnbelessthanm，orgreaterthan2m;andifso，whatwillbetheresult？