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Show S42 OF 'I' HE DISTINCTION BET,VEEN [ CH. VI. n1ankind, and the adaptation of particular cominodities to supply these wants, independently of the actual quantity of labour which these commodities n1ay cost in their collection or production. It is this value 'vh1ch is not only the great stin1ulus to the production of all kinds of wealth, but the great regulator of the forms and relative quantities in which it shall exist. 1'[ o· species of wealth can be brought to market for a continuance, unless some part of the society sets a value upon it equal to its natural or necessary price, and is both able and 'villing to make a sacrifice to this extent in order to obtain it. A tax will entirely put an end to the production of a con1modi ty, if no one of the society is disposed to value it at a price equal to the ne'v conditions of its supply. 1\.nd on the othe1· ~and, co?1modities will be continually increased 111 quantity. so long as the nun1 hers of those, who are a?le a?d 'villi~g to give a value for them equal to this price, continue to increase. In short, the market pri~es of comn1odities are the im~ed~ate causes of all the great movements of society _In the production of 'veal th, and these nlarket pnces always express clearly and unequi .. vocally the exchangeable value of commodities at the ti1ne and place in which they are exchano·ed and differ only from natural and necessary price~ as the actual state of the demand. and supply, with reg~rd to any particular article, 1nay differ from the ordinary and average state. '"fhe reader of course will observe that in using cn.v1.] 'VEALTll AND 'VALUE. 343 the tcnn value, or value in exchange, I al\lvays mean it to be understood in that enlarged and, as I , conceive, accuston1ed and correct sense, accordino- to ,vliich I endeavoured to explain and define 0 . it in the Second Chapter of this work, and never 111 the confined sense in which it has been lately applied by Mr. Ricardo, as depending exclusively upon the actual quantity of labour employed in production.* Understood in this latter sense, value, certainly, has not so intimate a connection with wealth. In comparing t\vo countries together of different degrees of fertility, or in coinparing an agricultural with a n1anufacturing anJ commercial country, their relative wealth \vould be very clifferen t from the proportion of labour employed by each in production; and certainly the increasing quantity of labour necessary to produce any con1n1odity would be very far indeed from being a stimulus to its increase. In this sense therefore wealth and value are very different. But if value be understood in the sense in 'vhich it is most generally used, ~nd according to which *Mr. Ricardo says, (ch. xx. p. 34·3.) "That commodity i~ alone invariable, which at all times requires the same sacrifice of toil and labour to produce it." \Vhat does the term "invariable" mean here? It cannot mean invariable in ! ~s e~changeable value ;. because lVIr. Ricardo has himself allowed that commodities which have cost the same sacrifice of toil and labour will very frequently not exchange for each other. As a measure of value in exchancre ~his standard is much more variable than those which he has r~Jectcd; and in what other sense it is to be understood, it is not easy to say. z4 |
