Note 776 — Chapter II · : THE APOGEE AND DECLINE OF THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL. JOHN STUART MILL

Mill first treated of the theory in his Unsettled Questions of Political Economy. A more complicated but more precise exposition is given in the Principles Book III, chap. 18, § 7. The whole process of reasoning, based as it is upon the hypothetical conduct of two persons, is purely abstract, and is of very little practical use. What is really important is to know the relation between the advantages gained by either side. It is true that on the whole imports and exports balance one another, thanks to the operation of money, but that is another question.