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Show 126 ON THE NaTURE AND (cH. II. ,vbicb the term can be applied, cannot be considered as an accurate and standard n1easure of real value in exchange. And if the labour .'vhich. a con1modity \vill comn~and cannot be considered ~n this lio·ht there is certainly no other quarter 1n b ' • 1 which ~~e can seek for such a measure \Vlt 1 any prospect of success. SECTION VII. Of a Mean between Corn and L~bour considered as a Measure of~ Real Value 'ln Exchange. No one cornn1odity then, it appears, can justly be considered as a standard tneasure of real value in exchange; and such an estitnate of the cotnp~rative prices of all cotnmodities as would detern11ne the con1mancl of any one in particular over the necessaries, conveniences, and amusetnents of life, including labour, ''rould not only be too dif-ficult and laborious for use, but generally quite itnpracticable. T\vo objects, however, tnight, in sotne cases ' be a better measure of real value in exchange . than one alone, and yet be sufficiently ma?ageable for practical application. . A certain quantity of corn of a given quahty, on account of its capacity of supporting a certain number of human beings, has al \Vays a definite and invariable value in use; but both its real and SEC. VII.] MEASVRES OF V ALU .E. 127 non1inal value in exchange is subject to considerable variations, not only fron1 year to year, but from century to century. It is found by experience that population and cultivation, notwithstanding their mutual dependence on each other, do not always proceed with equal steps, but are subject to n1arked alternations in the velocity of their tnovements. Exclusive of annual variations, it appears that corn sometin1es remains dear, compared 'vith labour and other commodities, for many years together, and at other times remains cheap, cotnpared 'vith the same objects, for similar periods. At these different periods, a .bushel of corn will con1mand very different quantities· of labour and other con1modities. ·In the r.eign of Henry VII., at the end of the 15th and beginning of the 16th centuries, it appears, fro1n the statute price of labour and the average price of wheat, that ~alf a bushel of this grain would purchase but little more than a day's con1rnon labour; and, of course, but a stnall quantity of those cornrnodities in the production of which n1uch labour is necessary. A century after"vards, in the latter part of the reign of Elizabeth, half a bushel of wheat would purchase three day's' comrnon labour, and, of course, a considerable quantity cotnparatively of those comn1odities on which labour is en1ployecl. Consequently, frotn century to century as \Veil as from year to year, a given quantity of corn appears to n1easure very in1perfectly the quantity of the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of |