OCR Text |
Show 110 ON THE NATURE AND (cH. II. us suppose; first, that the precious n1etals require for their production at the mines \Vhich yield no rent, a certain quantity of fixed and circulating capital employed for a certain titne. In this case, it f-ollows from the reasonings of the preceding section and even fron1 the aon1issions of Mr. Ricardo, that none of the con1n1odities which would exfor a given quantity of .silver, \vould contain the san1e quantity of labour as that silver, e~cept those which had been prDduced, not only by the san1e quantity of labour, but by the sa1ne quantities of the two kinds of capital employed for the satne tirne and in the same proportions : and, in the case of a rise in the price of labour, all con1modities which still contained the same quantity of labour \vould alter in price, except those very few which were circumstanced exactly in the san1e manner \vith regard to the capitals by "vhich they wei·e produced as the precious metals. · Let us suppose, secondly, that the production of the precious metals required no fixed capital, but n1erely advances in the payn1ent of manual labour for a year. This case is so very unusual, that I should aln1ost doubt whether a.ny comn1odities could be found which would at once be of the same exchangeable value, and contain the san1e q.uantity of labour as a given p'ortion of the preCious metals; and of course upon a rise in the price o. f lab.o ur, altnost all comn1oclities vvould rise or fall In pnce. . Let us suppose, thirdly, that labour alone, withDut any advances above the food of a day, were suf- "SEC. V.] .MEASURES OF VALUE. Ill ficient to obtain the precious metals, that is, that half an ounce of silver and -1 of an ounce of o~old lb ' b could al\\rays, on an average, be found by a day's search on the sea-shore. In tpis case it is obvious that every con11nodity, \\rhich had required in its production any sort or quantity of capital beyond the advance of necessaries for a day, 'vould differ in price from any portion of gold or silver which had cost the same quantity of labour. With regard to the effects of a rise in the price of labour, they cannot be the subject of our consideration as . . . ' It Is evident that no rise in the price of labour cou~d take place on the present supposition. . A day's. labour n1ust always remain of the same n1oney price, and corn could only rise as far as ·the diminution in the necessaries of the labourer would allow. Still, however, though the money price of th.e labourer could not rise, the rate of profits mtght fa~l; and on a fall in the rate of profits, every con1mo~1ty would fall cotnpared with money. . On either of the above suppositions, the operation of the causes n1entioned in the last section would so modify the prices of con1n1odities, that ~e should be as little able as we are at present, to 1~1fer from these relative prices the relative. proportions o~ labour employed upon each co1nn1odity. But Independently of the causes here adverted to, the precious n1etals have other sources of variation peculiar to them. On account of their durab~ l. .i ty, they conform thetnselves slo\ivly and 'vith difficulty to the varieties in the qualities of other |