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Macroeconomics Canadian 14th Edition Mcconnell Solutions Manual
Macroeconomics Canadian 14th Edition Mcconnell Solutions Manual
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Contrast how a market system and a command economy try to cope with economic
scarcity. LO 2.1
Answer: A market system allows for the private ownership of resources and
coordinates economic activity through market prices. Participants act in their own
self-interest and seek to maximize satisfaction or profit through their own decisions
regarding consumption or production. Goods and services are produced and resources
are supplied by whoever is willing to do so. The result is competition and widely
dispersed economic power.
The command economy is characterized by public ownership of nearly all
property resources and economic decisions are made through central planning. The
planning board, appointed by the government determines production goals for each
enterprise. The division of output between capital and consumer goods is centrally
decided based on the board’s long-term priorities
2. How does self-interest help achieve society’s economic goals? Why is there such a
wide variety of desired goods and services in a market system? In what way are
entrepreneurs and businesses at the helm of the economy but commanded by consumers?
LO 2.2
2-1
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3. Why is private property, and the protection of property rights, so critical to the success
of the market system? How do property rights encourage cooperation? LO 2.2
Answer: The ownership of private property and the protection of property rights
encourages investment, innovation, and, therefore, economic growth. Property rights
encourage the maintaining of the property and they facilitate the exchange of the
property. However, the most important consequence of property rights is that they
encourage people to cooperate by helping to ensure that only mutually agreeable
economic transactions take place. Also property rights encourage owners to maintain or
improve their property so as to preserve or increase its value.
4. What are the advantages of using capital goods in the production process? What is
meant by the term “division of labour”? What are the advantages of specialization in the
use of human and material resources? Explain why exchange is the necessary
consequence of specialization. LO 2.2
“Division of labour” means that workers perform those tasks that are best suited to their
individual abilities and skills.
The advantages of specialization for workers are that they can choose work according to
their natural aptitudes, have the opportunity to perfect those skills, and save time in not
having to shift continually from one task to another. Material resources will be
developed and adapted for a specific use. On a regional basis, each region will produce
those products for which it is best suited. By specializing in its comparative advantage,
each region or set of human and material resources is being used to maximize efficiency.
When resources are specialized, they are no longer self-sufficient. To obtain the
goods and services one needs, exchange is necessary. Also, specialization will result in a
surplus of a specific good being produced. The surplus of one good will be exchanged
for the surplus production of other goods.
5. What problem does barter entail? Indicate the economic significance of money as a
medium of exchange. What is meant by the statement “We want money only to part with
it”? LO 2.2
2-2
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consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Chapter 02 - The Market System and the Circular Flow
production of the good would have to collectively exchange it for all the goods and
service desired by the resource owners.
Money itself has value only in relation to the resources, goods, and services that can be
obtained with it. When people say that they want money, they really mean that they want
the things that money can buy. In this sense, money imparts value only when someone
parts with it.
Answer:
(a) The quotation is accurate. In a market system, producer decisions are motivated
by the attempt to earn profits. Those products that enable a firm to earn at least a normal
profit (minimum compensation for the entrepreneur for his/her time and talents) will be
produced. If the product cannot be produced for a profit—in other words, if losses are
involved in production—the capitalist firm will respond by seeking lower cost production
methods and may halt the production of goods completely. Because profits and/or losses
are the motivation behind the fundamental decisions made in a market system, it could be
called a “profit and loss economy.”
(b) Competition provides discipline in two ways. First, it forces firms to seek the
least-cost production methods or face being driven out of business by their rivals.
Second, it prevents successful producers from charging whatever the market will bear.
Competition keeps prices at a level where total revenue will just cover the total cost of
production including a normal profit, but no more in the long run. If sellers try to charge
a price that will earn them economic profits, new firms will enter the industry, increasing
supply, and lowering prices until the economic profits are eliminated. Competition is
indispensable in this role, because otherwise some other method would have to be found
to direct firms to use the least-cost production technique and to charge a price that
provides only a normal return. Where competition does not exist such as in natural
monopolies like public utility companies, regulators or publicly owned companies must
assume the role of disciplinarian. Experience has shown that this is a difficult process
and does not achieve the same results as easily as a competitive market situation.
7. Some large hardware stores such as Canadian Tire boast of carrying as many as 20,000
different products in each store. What motivated the producers of those individual
products to make them and offer them for sale? How did the producers decide on the best
combinations of resources to use? Who made those resources available, and why? Who
decides whether these particular hardware products should continue to be produced and
offered for sale? LO 2.3
Answer: The quest for profit led firms to produce these goods. Producers looked for and
found the least-cost combination of resources in producing their output. Resource
suppliers, seeking income, made these resources available. Consumers, through their
dollar votes, ultimately decide on what will continue to be produced.
2-3
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"You know what I mean well enough. You have only to recall to mind
what I said this morning about the money you have been hoarding. I
must and will have it, or a good portion of it, immediately."
"I do remember what you said. Surely you also remember my answer."
"There is no need for me to do so; but oh, John! look back and think of
the past, I pray you. If you do, you cannot persist in such a request.
Remember this is all I have reserved for our child."
"I do not want the settled property. That is out of your power to give, but
the money you have hoarded I will have, or you shall not see the boy
again until he has forgotten that he ever knew his mother. I have him in
my power, at any rate."
Even this threat failed to move Kathleen. In the same firm but quiet tone,
she replied—
"I am sorry to deny you anything, John, but I must do what I feel to be
right."
And as Mr. Torrance listened he was more than ever convinced that some
secret influence was working against him, and that his final triumph was
doubtful. He laughed uneasily, as he answered with a yawn—
"I am tired with my double journey, and need rest I will give you until
to-morrow morning to come to your senses. By the way, I am glad the
mare is all right again. She will sell for something, and every little
helps."
The littleness displayed in this threat pained Kathleen more than the
threat itself. Every day of late had shown her more plainly to what
manner of man she had given herself. At this moment, however, the
thought, "My child is safe, in loving hands, and with those whose faces
and home are familiar to him," took the sting from the bitterest words
that Mr. Torrance could say to her.
CHAPTER XXIII
LIGHT AT EVENTIDE
IT had been easy for Aylmer to find out that Mr. Torrance had left the
train at Earlsford Junction, and Kenneth with him. The ex-captain was
too well-known through the county for any mistake in identity to be
possible. Besides, the carrying off of the child had been a sudden
inspiration, not the result of a carefully laid plan, and Mr. Torrance had
only counted that it would be needful to detain him for a night in some
place unknown to his mother, to ensure her complete subjugation.
At Earlsford, he had hired a conveyance and driven away with the child,
then returned alone, and taken train to another station thirty miles distant,
whence he would return to Hollingsby.
"It was a new thing for the captain to be in charge of the little man," he
said. "But he was in rare spirits, as if he were up to some trick. Little
master cried when his father left him, but Mrs. Munslow will take good
care of him. She was nurse at Monk's How once, and afterwards she
married a widower with two children, but comfortably off. She has one
of her own now, so little master won't be short of a playfellow," said the
man.
Aylmer knew that Ralph's nurse, Sarah Swain, was married, but neither
remembered her present name nor her exact address—only that her home
was a couple of miles from Earlsford Junction. The idea that Mr.
Torrance would take the boy to Sarah had flashed across his mind, and
sent him in the right direction instead of to town. He accordingly
engaged the driver to convey him to her house. Under Sarah's charge he
found little Kenneth, making himself very much at home in the society
of the smallest Munslow.
Sarah beamed with delight at the sight of Mr. Matheson, and frankly
owned that she thought her old master was up to some trick to plague his
lady.
"I wouldn't have let him leave the child, sir," she said, "only I know
Captain Torrance, and I thought he might be left in worse hands, if I
refused. I knew I could make him comfortable, bless him! Isn't he like
his beautiful mother? He has her eyes to a bit."
Mr. Matheson assented, and replied, "I am very glad you did take the
poor child in. I can trust you to help me in restoring him to his mother."
He did not hesitate to trust Sarah in more than this, for he knew how
grateful the woman had been to Kathleen, the Ellicotts, and himself, on
Ralph's account.
"I always knew what would come of that marriage, sir," said Mrs.
Munslow. "My old master might put on new ways for a bit, to get his
own way; but he'll never change, and be a real, new man. If anybody
could have altered him, Master Ralph's mother would have been the one,
for Mr. Torrance cared more for her than for any human being but
himself."
Sarah shook her head to express what she did not put into words. In a
regretful way she added, "The master was wonderfully fine-looking. No
wonder a young lady thought such a handsome shell must cover a good
kernel. But he is different now—so coarsened, as one may say."
Aylmer could only assent. The stamp of an evil life was only too visible,
and Mr. Torrance's face to-day was in painful contrast to that of the
handsome cavalier who had so captivated Kathleen's girlish fancy on the
day of the meet a few years ago.
Mr. Matheson purposed taking the child back with him to Earlsford
Station, but Sarah's womanly wit suggested a better plan.
"Pay off the man, sir, and say you will not go back to the station, but bid
me good day before he starts, and set off walking to the station further
on. When he is well out of sight, come back. We have a nice covered trap
and a good horse here. Munslow can drive you to Hollingsby by a
shorter road than the train takes, and you can send a message to
Mountain from a post-office on the way. You will get nicely home when
it is dusk."
This plan was adopted. Kenneth, weary with so much journeying, slept
on the road, and was given into Geraldine's arms, too drowsy to be
roused, so was put to bed at Monk's How.
Mr. Torrance had never doubted that Kathleen would be like wax in his
hands, and said to himself, "I shall settle the business easily enough over
the breakfast-table. My lady may think she will beat me, but when she
has slept upon the matter she will listen to reason. When I have secured
the cash, the boy shall come back, and she will be so delighted to have
him that she will forget all else, as she has done many a time before,
after our quarrels were over."
Mr. Torrance had reached his dressing-room when he came to this mental
conclusion. He was feeling wretchedly ill, and unfit for anything but rest.
He caught sight of his face in the glass, and was startled by its colour. He
walked unsteadily across the floor, and was fain to sit down before
undressing.
"This dizziness again. The old doctor's warning will come true, if I go on
in the way I have done lately. I must turn over a fresh leaf, or—"
A servant passing the door heard a fall, and listened. There was no
further movement, but a sound of heavy, unnatural breathing reached her,
and she ran hastily downstairs to call for help. She met her mistress at
the foot of the stairs, and told her that she was afraid Mr. Torrance must
be ill.
Kathleen told the girl to follow her, hastened to the dressing-room, and
found her husband lying senseless and motionless on the floor. The only
sign of life was the stertorous breathing which had attracted the girl's
attention, and caused her to give the alarm.
The doctor was soon on the spot, and confirmed the fear which had taken
possession of Kathleen.
"Yes, it is apoplexy," he said. "Mr. Torrance's father died of it, but later in
life. He was careful of himself, and lived by strict rules, which I could
not induce your husband to do, though it was his only chance, and he
knew it."
Kathleen's goodness to the once lonely boy bore fruit after many days,
and gave her a dutiful son in the manly youth, outwardly so like his
father, but happily unlike him in other respects. Ralph was now nearly
eighteen, and for several years past had improved greatly both in
character and appearance. That he grieved deeply for the loss of his
father goes without saying.
Mr. Torrance had left no valid will. One had been prepared by his
instructions in an hour of compunction, or, perhaps, when the doctor's
warnings, and the memory of Kathleen's unbounded trust, had moved
him to do what conscience told him was only just. But it had never been
signed. A superstitious feeling, a change of mood, or the determination
to hold his power as a sort of weapon over his wife's head, had kept Mr.
Torrance from completing his will, which, without his signature, was
only so much waste paper.
"Shall you stay at the Hall, mother?" he asked. "It will seem large and
lonely for you, and, from what Mr. Matheson says, the income will be
too small to keep the same establishment. Still, it has always been your
home."
"You forget, Ralph dear. It is not mine now, it is yours. The property was
not settled on me. It became your father's absolutely, by my deed of
conveyance, and you, his elder son, are his heir."
"I should not wish to live here in any case, Ralph. I could not if I would.
And you, dear boy, have no power, however much you may wish it, to
give my old home back to me. You are barely eighteen, and until you are
of age you can do nothing. Three years hence—"
"I shall be of age, and I will do what is right by you and my brother,"
interposed Ralph, quickly.
He kissed her tenderly, and Kathleen smiled through glad tears, and
returned the caress. She would not say anything to cast a doubt on his
sincerity. Indeed, she fully believed in it; but who could tell whether he
would feel the same when the power to make restitution was really in his
hands?
"If I were to die in the meanwhile," said Ralph, after a pause, "I suppose
the property would come to Kenneth, as my heir?"
"I have never thought of such a possibility, and with all my heart I pray
that God will spare both my dear sons to be my comfort. I shall hope for
more than one staff for my old age. In the meanwhile, I am thankful that
matters have been so arranged that Mr. Matheson and I will be joint
guardians of you two infants. Your father had appointed us in that
unsigned will, and his wish has been carried out in this respect by
consent of the court."
When Kathleen used the word "infants" she stretched herself on tiptoe,
and smiled up in Ralph's face, for, though she was considerably above
middle height, she was much below that of her tall stepson.
"One of your infants looks down on you in stature, mother," said Ralph;
"but in all else he looks up to his guardian. How glad I am that you and
Mr. Matheson should be joined in this trust! With neither mother nor
father of my very own, I yet have both in you and him."
After Ralph's departure, Kathleen left the Hall with her little son. It cost
her something to turn her back on the home of a lifetime, but so many
sorrowful memories were now associated with it, that even had she been
able to remain, she would not have done so. She had arranged to make
her home with her aunt and Geraldine at Monk's How. Mrs. Ellicott was
in failing health, the house was large enough, little Kenneth would help
to brighten the place, and the elders would be mutually sources of
comfort to each other.
Kathleen's income would suffice for the modest wants of herself and her
boy. A tenant had offered to take the Hall furnished, on a three years'
lease, and was willing to engage such of the servants as chose to stay,
except the coachman.
"He needn't say, 'except the coachman,'" remarked Mountain. "I am too
old to begin under another master. I serve Miss Kathleen as was, or I
retire into private life, with a cottage and a cow or two. But, seeing that
Mrs. Ellicott's man is leaving to go to a livelier place, she has offered me
his, and I mean to take it. It's likely enough I shall drive my own young
lady as long as I can hold the reins, for, though I shall be coachman to
the old one, it's all in the family."
Kathleen was only twenty-nine when she took up her abode with the
Ellicotts, but a silver thread might be seen here and there, amidst the soft
masses of her abundant hair. She smiled as she called attention to them.
"I have been growing old fast of late, aunty," she said to Mrs. Ellicott.
"Ger does not change a bit, unless it is to look younger and fairer. I feel
so staid and middle-aged beside her."
The trembling lip and a suspicious moisture in her eyes told that
Kathleen was looking back on the saddest period of her life.
"You will grow younger again here, Kitty," replied Ger. "In this quiet
home you will begin a new life, and in time it will be a bright and happy
one."
But the cloud did not soon pass away from Kathleen's spirit. She seldom
spoke of her husband, and her friends felt it to be the truest kindness to
allude to the past as little as possible. They knew that, far and beyond all
other causes of sorrow, the thought of Mr. Torrance's condition when the
last dread summons came was the most terrible of all.
In time, however, the widowed Mrs. Torrance became more like the
Kathleen Mountford of old, but there was no trace of the girlish self-will
that had led her astray. The lessons she had learned through suffering had
produced blessed and enduring results, which each day made more
manifest. Mrs. Ellicott only lived a year after Mr. Torrance, and her
gentle presence was greatly missed by all who knew her, especially by
her daughter and niece.
During the three years of Ralph's minority, the Hollingsby Hall estates
were well managed, and though not free from encumbrance when he
came of age, all debts and a portion of the mortgage had been paid off.
There were no special festivities on Ralph's twenty-first birthday, as
every one—none more than himself—felt that such would have been out
of place. Kathleen, however, laid aside her widow's dress, and wore a
rich black silk with soft white lace at the wrists and throat, in honour of
the occasion.
"Mother, how beautiful you look!" said Ralph, as he held her at arm's
length, and surveyed her from head to foot. "You have really grown
young again. I am so glad you have changed your style of dress."
"I did so in compliment to the heir's birthday," she replied. Then clasping
her arms round him she kissed him tenderly and said, "I pray that God
may abundantly bless you, my dear boy, and make you a useful, happy
man. A true soldier and follower of Christ."
"That is just what I want to be, mother dear," said Ralph, after returning
the embrace, and whilst still holding her in his strong arms. "You know
that I promised to tell you to-day what profession I meant to follow, for I
should dread the thought of an idle life. I used to talk of being a soldier,
and then I gave up the idea. I still wish to be one, but to fight under the
greatest of all Captains, and not with weapons forged by the hands of
men. Do you know what I mean?"
"I think I do, dear. You wish to be a true soldier of Christ, and you think
you can best serve Him by dedicating your life to the ministry."
"Yes. I have talked everything over with Mr. Matheson, and he approves,
and says he believes I have made a right choice. You, too, will ask God's
blessing upon it, I know."
Kathleen was delighted. She knew that Aylmer would not approve unless
fully convinced of Ralph's sincerity and fitness for such a vocation.
It was a simple little gift, but it had cost the child some self-denial, and
Ralph praised and valued it accordingly, to the great satisfaction of the
donor.
"Now, Kenneth," he said, "you shall take a present that I have got here
and give it to mother."
"It's not mother's birthday," said the boy, taking the offered packet. "It is
tied up, so p'r'aps you want her to keep it till her birthday comes."
"No, my boy. Mother must have it just now, and from your small hands.
After all, it is not a gift. It is something of mother's very own which
some one has taken care of, ready to be given back to her."
Kathleen guessed what the packet contained. It was a deed by which she
would be restored to full possession of the Hall and the estates that had
been her own before her marriage.
"I will not refuse your gift, Ralph," she said, "for a gift it is, inasmuch as
the law gave it absolutely to you. But I know your nature too well to
think that you could ever be happy if you kept it. You know also that I
can experience no greater pleasure than in using all I have for the benefit
of both my boys."
There was a little dinner-party at Mr. Matheson's that evening, that the
day might not pass quite unmarked by any social gathering, but the
guests were few. Amongst them, however, were two who were specially
welcome, namely, the new Dean of Woldcaster and his bride, formerly
Hetty Stapleton.
Hetty, staunch, generous and helpful always, and particularly where the
welfare of her own sex was involved, had spoken with equal plainness
and good sense at the meeting of a society formed to improve the
condition of working girls. The Very Rev. the Dean of Woldcaster had
been present on that occasion. He was a bachelor of forty-five, and a
friend of Aylmer Matheson. He had just decided that his handsome
residence, in the Close at Woldcaster, needed a fitting mistress, and
before long he came to the further conclusion that Miss Stapleton would
be the very person to fill that position, if she would accept it.
There was another good reason for the proposal, which followed after a
short interval. The dean was thoroughly in love, for the first time in his
life. He confessed to Hetty that such was the case with a sort of apology,
as if it were a thing to be ashamed of.
"The fact is," he exclaimed, "I have always lived such a busy life, and I
have had younger brothers and sisters to look after and help on in the
world, so that I have never had time until now."
After this all was smooth sailing, and as the dean's bride Hetty was an
important guest at Ralph's birthday dinner.
They made, all together, a very happy party, and every one rejoiced to
see the joyous light in Kathleen's eyes, and to hear something of the old
ring in her voice, which had been long missing.
The dean took a friend's privilege, and rallied his host on his bachelor
establishment, vaunted his own happily changed condition, and advised
Aylmer to follow his example. He was thinking how well that nice Miss
Ellicott would suit Matheson in every way.
His wife was a little uneasy, for she knew of the old wound, and could
gauge the faithfulness of the true heart that would never find room for a
second love. Only Kathleen could fill the void.
The party broke up fairly early, for the dean and his wife had a long drive
before them.
Aylmer walked back to Monk's How with Kathleen, for the night was
lovely, and the distance not great. Ralph was in advance of them with
Ger. Kathleen's hand rested on Aylmer's arm, and they walked some little
way without speaking. Then she broke the silence by saying, "How well
Ralph is turning out, and it is all through you. No words can tell what a
blessed influence you have exerted over his life, and mine too. To think
of the dear boy's choice, and his making over everything to me again as
soon as possible."
"That was only just and honest. As a true man, Ralph could have done
nothing else, and we can rejoice in the knowledge that he has a horror of
everything that is not true and upright."
"I seem to be always accepting benefits. Every one has been so good to
me, since—"
Kathleen paused. She could not bear to say what was in her mind, but
Aylmer knew that she would be thinking of Mr. Torrance's death.
"Better not to look back, dear Kathleen," he said. "The prospect ahead is
bright now, for you and yours, at any rate."
"I must look back a long way, Aylmer, even to my childish days, and to
the time when you took such a thankless office as that of guardian to so
self-willed a girl as I was. On your part, I can see nothing but patience,
kindness, unselfishness, generosity and affection, to which I was never
worthy. You have always been giving, and I receiving, and I suppose it
will be the same to the end. Even now, I am a petitioner, and must ask
yet more at your hands. With the restoration of the property, new
responsibilities rest upon me. I long to do right, but I mistrust my own
judgment. I want my old guardian's help more than ever, for my boys as
well as myself. I cannot stand alone."
"You know, dear Kathleen, there is nothing you can ask that I shall be
unwilling to give or to do," replied Aylmer.
"I knew you would say so. You are always the same. How I wish I could
do something for you, or give you, in ever so little a way, a proof that I
am grateful for your goodness and—sorry for the past!"
"You can, dearest Kathleen, if you will. There is only one gift that would
make me rich indeed, and you know what it is. I asked for it once before,
but then—"
"I was blind and could not discern the difference. But I will not talk of
the past, Aylmer. If you can really care for such a gift, it is yours, my
good, faithful love. I only wish I were more worthy of you."
It would be easy to draw a fair picture of after years, for these events
happened long ago. The child Kenneth is growing up to stalwart
manhood, and Ralph's name is known and honoured as that of a true
servant of Christ.
Kathleen's hair has more than mere silver threads in it now, though many
—her husband included—think her handsomer than ever. But the story
shall end here, for it only professed to be that of A Wilful Ward, and the
title no longer applies to Mrs. Matheson, wife of the senior Member for
Woldshire.
THE END
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