OCR Text |
Show ON THE NATURE AND ( CH. II. life which any particular cotnn1odity will com- ' . . n1and in exchange. . The same observation "rill hold good If \¥e ~ake day-labour, the tneasure propo~ed by A?a~ Smtth; and the same period in our history Will Illustra~e the variation fron1 century to century of this measure. In the reign of Henry VII. a day's labour, according to the forn1er staten1ent, wo~ld purchase nearly half a bushel of wheat, th~ chief necessary of life, and consequently the ch1~f article in the general estimate of real value 1n exchange. A century after~ards, a day's labour would only purchase on~-s1xth of a ~Nshel~-a 111ost prodio·ious difference in this main article. And though it may be presu1ned that a day's labour in both periods would purchase ~uch more nearly the san1e quantity of those articles where labour enters as a principal ingredient, than of corn, yet the variations in its con1ma1:d over the first necessary of life, at different penods, must alone disqualify it from being an accurate n1easure of real value i~ exchange from century to century. Thouo·h neither of these two objects, how·ever, b . c taken sin()'ly, can be considered as a sat1s1actory n1easure of value, yet by combining the two, \Ve may perhaps approach to gr~ater accur~cy. When corn con1pared vVI th la hour IS dear, labour compared \vith corn n1ust necessari.ly be cheap. At the period that a given ~uantity of corn will command the greatest quantity of the necessaries, conveniences, and an1usen1ents of life, SEC. VII.] 1-tEASURES OF VALUE. a given quantity of labour will always com111and the smallest quantity of such objects; and at th€ period 'vhen corn commands the s1nallest, labour will command the greatest quantity of thetn. If,. then, \Ve take a tnean between the t\vo,. we shall evirlently have a measure corrected by the contemporary variations of each in oppos-ite directions1 and likely to represent 1nore nearly than either the same quantity of the necessaries,. conveniences, and an1usements of life,. at the n1ost distant periods,. and under all the varyin·g circumstances to \vhich the progres.s of population and cultivation is subject~ For this purpose, ho,vever, it is necessary that we should fix upon some measure of corn which may be considered, in respect of quantity, as an equivalent to a day's labou1·; and perhaps in this country, a peck of wheat, which is about the average daily earnings of a good labourer in good times, may be sufficiently accurate for the ob .... ject proposed. Any commodity therefore which, at different periods, will purchase the san1e number of days' labour and of pecks of \vheat, or parts of them, each taken in equal proportions, n1ay be considered, upon this principle, as cotnmanding pretty nearly the san1e quantity of the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of life ; and, consequently, as preserving pretty nearly its real value in exchange at different petiods. And any commodity \Vhich at different periods is found to purchase different quantities of corn and labour thus taken, \Vill evidently have varied co1npared ,v·ith a K |