ount of goods which
the rest of the community is prepared to give him in exchange.

This consideration is also very strongly evident with regard to
international trade. Here the division of labour is assisted by the
difference in the products of different countries. There can be no doubt
that the exchange of commodities between one nation and another tends to
bring them together and to promote unity and harmony of interests. At
the same time it is also likely to be fruitful in quarrels and
bickering. We saw that Hiram was very much dissatisfied with the cities
in Galilee which Solomon presented to him in the course of their
semi-commercial transactions. He appears to have retaliated by making
Solomon a very handsome present in gold; but Hiram seems to have been a
very exceptional person, and it is probable that most traders who are
dissatisfied with the consideration received would not have been so
generous in expressing themselves.

International commerce has also been a fruitful cause of disunion rather
than unity when various nations have quarrelled with one another
concerning the right to trade with a third people. If one nation is
trading with another greatly to its profit, it feels that it has a
grievance when it finds that a neighbouring nation is sending cargoes to
the same destination and undercutting it and taking the cream of the
trade. After religion, it is probable that trade has produced more
bloodshed than any other form of human activity. At the same time there
can be no doubt that on the whole its influence has been strongly on the
side of unity and that it has done more to break down international
barriers than any other influence that has operated in the course of
history. The trader, as such, believes entirely and whole-heartedly in
the unity of mankind. All that he wants to do is to buy his products as
cheaply as he can and to sell them at the best possible price. Whether
he buys at home or abroad, or whether he sells at home or abroad, is a
matter of complete indifference to him except that, as has been shown,
owing to variations in value in different parts of the world, he is
probably likely to be able to make larger profits from foreign trade
than in commerce at home. National preferences sometimes induce him to
encourage home industry by buying home products when foreign goods would
have paid him better, but in so far as this happens, he ceases to be a
trader as such and becomes a mixture of tr