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SEC. IV.]

MEASURES OF VALUE.

93

times, and in different countries, and enable us to say when two or more commodities have varied in relation to each other, in which, and to what extent in each, the variations have taken place.^[1]

Section V.—Of the Labour which a Commodity will command, considered as a Measure of Value in Exchange.

When we consider labour as a measure of value in the sense in which it is most frequently applied by Adam Smith, that is, when the value of an object is estimated by the quantity of labour of a given description which it can command, it will appear to be a measure essentially distinct from all others, and to approach as near to a standard measure, both of re-

↑ Mr. Ricardo, at the conclusion of the sixth section of his first chapter, has the following passage: "It is necessary for me to remark that I have not said, because one commodity has so much labour employed upon it as will cost £1000, and another so much as will cost £2000, that therefore one would be of the value of £1000, and the other of £2000; but I have said that their value will be to each other as 2 to 1, and that in these proportions they will be exchanged. It is of no importance to the truth of this doctrine, whether one of these commodities sells for £1100, and the other for £2200, or one for £1500, and the other for £3000; into that question I do not at present inquire: I affirm only that their relative values will be governed by the relative quantities of labour bestowed on their production. It is on this view of relative value, that all Mr. Ricardo's calculations in the rest of his book depend, without any modifications, although in two previous sections he had acknowledged that considerable modifications were necessary. My object in the present section has been to show that the relative values of commodities are not only not governed, but are very far from being governed, by the relative quantities of labour bestowed on their production, as stated in the passage quoted: and, in the passage itself, it is positively denied, that because a commodity has so much labour bestowed upon it as will cost £1000, that therefore it is of the value of £1000. Mr. Ricardo did not fall into the unaccountable error of calling labour profits, and of confounding the accumulated labour actually worked up in fixed capitals and materials with the profits upon such capitals and materials, things totally distinct.

[1] Mr. Ricardo, at the conclusion of the sixth section of his first chapter, has the following passage: "It is necessary for me to remark that I have not said, because one commodity has so much labour employed upon it as will cost £1000, and another so much as will cost £2000, that therefore one would be of the value of £1000, and the other of £2000; but I have said that their value will be to each other as 2 to 1, and that in these proportions they will be exchanged. It is of no importance to the truth of this doctrine, whether one of these commodities sells for £1100, and the other for £2200, or one for £1500, and the other for £3000; into that question I do not at present inquire: I affirm only that their relative values will be governed by the relative quantities of labour bestowed on their production. It is on this view of relative value, that all Mr. Ricardo's calculations in the rest of his book depend, without any modifications, although in two previous sections he had acknowledged that considerable modifications were necessary. My object in the present section has been to show that the relative values of commodities are not only not governed, but are very far from being governed, by the relative quantities of labour bestowed on their production, as stated in the passage quoted: and, in the passage itself, it is positively denied, that because a commodity has so much labour bestowed upon it as will cost £1000, that therefore it is of the value of £1000. Mr. Ricardo did not fall into the unaccountable error of calling labour profits, and of confounding the accumulated labour actually worked up in fixed capitals and materials with the profits upon such capitals and materials, things totally distinct.

[1]