markets as well as for its own, the things in which it lies under the least disadvantage, if there be none in which it possesses an advantage.
The fundamental ground on which all trade, or all exchange of commodities, rests, is division of labor, or separation of employments. Beyond the ordinary gain from division of labor, arising from increased dexterity, there exist gains arising from the development of “the special capacities or resources possessed by particular individuals or localities.” International exchanges call out chiefly the special advantages offered by particular localities for the prosecution of particular industries.
“The only case, indeed, in which personal aptitudes go for much in the commerce of nations is where the nations concerned occupy different grades in the scale of civilization.... The most striking example which the world has ever seen of a foreign trade determined by the peculiar personal qualities of those engaged in ministering to it is that which was furnished by the Southern States of the American Union previous