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Show ON' THE NA'l'Ult~ AN:t> [CH. II. n1ated upon the principles of Adam Sn1i:h, their n1oney cost and average money value \Vtll gener- ally meet. But when cost is estin1ated .upon the principles ef Mrw Ricardo, by the quantity of labour applied, the labour cost and labour value scarcely ever agree. Wherever there a1·e profits, (and~ the cases· are very rare indeed in ,vbich there are none;) the value of a corntnodity in exchange f.or labour is uniformly greater than the labour which has been employed upon it. We have therefore to choose bet\veen aR imperfect rnea:sure of exchangeable value, and one that is necessarily and fundamentally erron.eous. , If 1\fr. Ricardo says that by value, when he uses· it alone,. he droes not mean exchangeable value, then he has certainly led us into a great en;or i11 n1any parts-of his 'vork; and has finally left us \vitbGUt substituting any measure of exchangeable vahae for the one to whieh he objects·. 'Eheve never. \vas any difficulty in finding a n1easure of cost, or indeed of valu€, if we define it to be cost. The difficulty is, to find a measure of real value ill exchange, in contradisti-nction to nominal value or price. There is· no-question as to an accurate standard, which: isj~stly considered as u~nattainable. But, of all the articles given in e~change, lab0ur is,. beyond compatiisoll, the largest and most itnportant; and next to it stands corn. The reason,, why corn should be pliefetred to coals· or ir0n, is surely very intelligible. The same feas0n con1 bined with others holds for preferring labour to corn. And the reC~:sons given in tl1i5 section are, I trust, suffi- SEC. VII.] ME.ASlJll.J:S OF VALVE. 133 cient for preferring, in some cases, a mean between corn and lab?ur to either of then1 taken separately. Where corn Is not one of the articles to be measured, as in the case of an estitnate of the value of t~e precious metals, or any particular cotnmodity, a tnean between corn and labour is certainly to be preferred to labour alone; but 'vhere corn is oneQf the main articles to be measured, as in an estimate of the exchangeable value of the whole produce of a c.ountry, the command of such produce over d(i) .. mestic and foreign labour is still the b.est .crit~rio.n to which \Ve can refer. . .,.. KS • |
