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Show 88 ON THE NATURE AND [en. II. founded on the quantity of labour \Vhich each .article had cost; but if they did not, or if conlmodities were found by accident, or the labour employed upon then1 ,,vas utterly unknown when they "vere brought to n1arket, the society \Vould never be at a loss for a rule to determine their exchangeable value; and it is probable that the exchanges actually made in. this stage of society would be less frequently proportioned to the labour \vhich each object had cost than in any other~ But in fact there is scareely any stage of society, ho,vever barbarous, where the cost of production js confined exclusively to labour. At a very early , period, profits will be found to forn1 an important part of this cost, and consequently to enter largely into the question of exchangeable value as a necessary condition of supply. To lTiake even a bow and arro,v, it is obviously necessary that the wood and reed should be proper I y dried and seasoned; and the tin1e· that· these n1aterials must necessarily be kept by th~ workman before his work is completed, introduces at once a new eletnent into the .cotnputation of cost. we may estimate the labour en1ployed in any sort of capital just upon the same . principle as the labour .etnployed in the imm.ediate product~on of the commodity. But the varying quickness of the returns is an entirely new element, whjch has nothing to do w·ith the quantity of labour employed upon the capital, and yet, in every period of society, the earliest as well as the latest, is .of the ut.most in1portat1ce in the determinq,tion of pnces, .SEC •. IV.] :MEASURES Oli', VALUE. .89 The · fixed capital necessary to hollow out a .'canoe, n1ay consist of little n1ore than a few stone hatchets and shell chissels; and the labour necessary , to make then1 might not add much to the labour . subse.q:uently employed in the work to vvhich they · "vere applied; but it is likewise necessary that the workJnan should previously cut do\vn the tim ·~er~ and en1ploy a great quan.tity ~of labour in variol. tS parts .of the process very long before there is a possibility of his receiving the returns for his exertions, either in the use of the canoe, or in the co!llmodities which be might .obtain in exchange for it; and during this time he n1ust of course ad- ·vance the who]e of his subsistence. But the prov,idence, foresight, and postponement of present enjoyment for the sake of future henefit and profit, which are necessary for this purpose, have always been considered a.s rare qualities in the savage; and it can scarcely adnJit of a dotlbt that the articles which were ;of a nature to require th.is long . preparation \V.ould be colnparatively very scarce, and would have a great exchangeable value in proportion to the qtJantity .of labour which had been actually employed upon them, .and on the .capital necessary to their production. On this account, I should think it not in1probable, that a canoe might, in such a state of society, possess double the exchangeable value of a number of deer, to produce which successively in the market might h(.Lv.e cost precisely the same nun1ber of days' labour, including the necessary fixed capital of the bows an.d arro\vs, &c. tJsed for ki1ling. then1 ; and |
