The name is absent

the expense of transportation per unit of commodity, and the
price in A being changed from p_a to p_a + δ, we have

∩_a(p_a ÷ 8) + ∩g(p_a + δ + e)
= F_a(p_a + ɛ) + F_b(p_a + δ + e)

(Arts. 67 and 68.)¹

We have now to enquire whether the quantity denoted by
either member of this equation is greater than the corresponding
quantity before the communication was opened ; whether the
following inequality holds :

F_a(p_a + ɛ) + F_b(p_a + δ + e)

>F_a(p_a) + F_b(p_b).

Cournot answers this question in the negative by showing that
the inequality does not hold in a particular case : namely, when
the original prices, p_a p_b, differ from each other, and also from the
new price in A, by only a small quantity, in which case also the
cost of transport, e, must be small, since otherwise exportation
from A to B would not take place on the removal of the barrier.
This reasoning, or that which is based on another particular
assumption, viz. δ and p_b — (p_a + e) small (Art. 68, Iastpar.), is
quite correct. But the assumption that e should be small leads to
an erroneous conclusion in a subsequent problem : to determine
the effect of a tax on exports or imports (Art. 70).

If p is the price of the article in the exporting country before
the imposition of the tax u, and p + δ the price after the tax, we
have, before the tax, ∩_a(p) + ∩^b(p + e) = F_a(p) + F_b(p + e).²
And after the tax u per unit of commodity has been imposed, we
have

Ω∙_a(p + ɛ) + ʃɪb(p + δ + e + u)
⁼ -^^,_a(P + δ) + F_b(p + δ + e + u).

Cournot now proceeds to draw conclusions from the last
equation by expanding and neglecting the powers, not only of δ
and u, but also e, above the first power. I submit that Cournot’s

ɪ For p_a + δ being the price of the commodity in A, and accordingly the (net)
price which the producers in A obtain (not only for that portion of the product
which they sell in A, but also) for that portion of their product which they sell in
B at a price heightened by the cost of transport e, the quantity offered by the pro-
ducers resident in A at the (net) price p_a + δ, together with the quantity offered by
the residents in B at the price p_a + δ + e, is equal to the quantity demanded by
the residents in A at the price p_a + δ, together with the quantity demanded by the
residents in B at the price p_a + δ + e.

² Compare the last note.

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