Note 2 — Chapter X · After the War.

Another idea which about this time had become very popular on the island was, that while it was a very desirable thing to sell as much as possible of the products of the island to people in other countries, it was not desirable to buy any thing from foreigners in return, and that it was wise to put all possible obstructions in the way of any ill-informed persons who desired to make such exchanges. But as no one can long continue to buy unless he proportionally sells, or sell unless he proportionally buys, the foreign commerce of the island soon came to a stand-still; and what also notably helped to this result was, that the necessity of insuring all exchanges made through the medium of the unstable currency of the island caused all the island products to cost from five to ten or fifteen per cent. more than they otherwise would, and more than they would cost the foreigners to buy elsewhere.2 But as every industrious community (especially if it calls in the aid of the forces of nature through machinery) produces more than it consumes; and as the islanders were both industrious and ingenious, it oddly enough happened that the community became sorely troubled by an accumulation of useful things, which the manufacturers would not part with, because they were unwilling to sell at a loss, and which the foreigners would not buy because they could buy cheaper elsewhere, and pay in their own products for what they bought. Then the manufacturers stopped producing, and next the laborers, by lack of employment, being unable to buy a full share of the existing abundance, in turn diminished their consumption; so that for a time it seemed as though the island would get into the condition of those unfortunate people who die of their own fatness.