Spencer Heath Archive

Item 3205

Penned quotes from J.S. Mill – 1844, with comment by Heath. Encyclopedia Britannica XIX 378  Art. Pol. Econ

1933

Original -> 1057

 

 

 

“When two countries trade together in two commodities, the prices of the commodities exchanged on both sides will adjust themselves in such a way that the quantities required by each country of the article which it imports from its neighbor shall be exactly sufficient to pay for one another.”

 

Would not this be equally true of any two persons or as between any two groups of persons who traded together in only two commodities? S.H.

 

“Whilst there cannot be permanent excess of production, there may be a temporary excess, not only of any one article, but of commodities generally, – this last, however, not arising from over production, but from a want of commercial confidence.”

 

This must be want of confidence as to safety and profits on the part of secondary industries, thus causing an excess supply of primary goods. S.H.

 

“Mill holds with Ricardo that profits rise as wages fall and profits fall as wages rise.”

 

They rise and fall together — no essential difference between them. Both are a reflection of production. S.H.