In June 1924 D. H. Robertson published a short ‘Note on the Real Ratio of International Interchange’ in The Economic Journal. In it he discussed Keynes's treatment of the effects of the post-war improvement in Britain's terms of trade in the course of his controversy with Sir William Beveridge (JMK, vol. xix, pp. 125–37) and suggested Keynes had not set out the alternative policy implications as clearly as he might. In particular, he suggested that Keynes's advocacy of a contrived fall in the ratio of interchange through reductions in real wages only made sense if the difficulties of adjustment to the new situation were too great or if that situation was expected to be transitory. Otherwise, a diversion of resources away from the foreign trade sector or an expansion in overseas lending would make more sense. Keynes commented in a brief postscript.

From The Economic Journal, June 1924

Mr Robertson's analysis makes the whole matter much clearer. But I should like to add that my pessimistic doubts always proceeded from the prior doubt whether the recent relation of export prices to import prices could be expected to last. If we can look forward permanently to buying as much food and raw materials as we require at a price 22 per cent cheaper in terms of exports than before the war, plainly this is nothing to grumble at. But I do not understand what permanent change in our favour can have produced this fortunate result.