But while the merchants assert that they have no direct profit
upon their sales of knitted goods, or at least none but the smallest,
they do not deny that, in order to repay themselves for the trouble
and risk involved in the two transactions upon which this profit is
realized, they charge considerably more for their tea and drapery
goods than the ordinary retail price in other districts. In other
words, although there is nominally no profit upon the knitted
goods, there is a double profit, or a very large profit, on the
drapery goods, tea, etc., bartered for it. If, therefore, we calculate
what the price of these goods should be at the ordinary retail rate,
and deduct the surplus from the nominal price of the knitted
articles, we find that the usual percentage of profit is obtained
on the latter as well as on the tea and drapery.