cost to bring her home empty. Now he observed that at first when he began his voyages, nearly everything sold for much more money in San Francisco than in Isle Pleasant; yet even at first there were some things, such as boots, that were much cheaper in San Francisco than in Isle Pleasant. Then as prices and wages rapidly advanced on the island, the prices of the exports she sent to San Francisco declined there; so it soon happened that there was not more difference in the cost, for instance, of plantain flour in San Francisco and Isle Pleasant than was sufficient to provide a remuneration for the labour and risk of bringing it from one place to the other. When this point was reached of approximate equality in prices between the two places, the trade, as long as it consisted entirely of exports from Isle Pleasant paid for in money by San Francisco, began to fall off. For if they could get as much money by selling their goods at home, the islanders had no inducement to send them abroad. Now, however, the captain resolved that the Carrier Pigeon should make her return
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IV.]
FOREIGN TRADE.
89
