sequently in the value which he assigns to these objects, or the sacrifice which he is willing to make to obtain them. Value being an affection of mind, and depending on the abilities and inclinations of men, which are affected by an inconceivable number of circumstances, other than the qualities of the things themselves that are valued, must, like those abilities and inclinations, be in a constant state of fluctuation, and never long together the same. Again, as value can only be manifested by a comparison of two objects, if the value of any one of these objects becomes changed in any degree, the value of every other object with which it is compared, must of necessity appear to have sustained a corresponding alteration. Thus, if the value of grain is to be expressed in silver, this expression may vary either by a change in the circumstances which confer value on grain, or by a change of those which confer value on silver; and, what is worthy of notice, in the event of such change, it may be uncertain whether it is the grain or the silver, or both, the value of which may have varied. But if both should happen to have varied equally and in the same direction, their values will appear to be precisely the same as before, notwithstanding that both of them have altered. It is true, the value of any one article, whether bullion or goods, may, during any moderate space of time, be shown to have remained unchanged, or to have varied in a certain proportion, by comparing it with a great number of other articles; but not with one only. After a long interval of years, however, the comparison is less to be depended upon.

The supply and the demand in the market for any commodity have a reciprocal action upon each other. While its value at any given time is determined by the relation of the demand to the supply, this value operates in increasing or lessening the future supply, and thus affects the price in a future market, according as that price affords more or less remuneration to the producer. The remuneration of the producer arises through the excess of the sale price of the article over the cost of producing it. Thus, with a change in the cost of production, the value of every commodity ultimately experiences a corresponding change. Now every commodity is produced under circumstances which are liable to alter, and these circumstances are so numerous

and fluctuating, (any one of which becoming changed, must cause a change in value,) that hence, also, arises a constant source of fluctuation in value.

Again, "Value does not depend merely upon the scarcity in which commodities exist, nor the cost of original acquisition, nor upon the inequality of their distribution; but upon the circumstance of their not being distributed according to the wills and powers of individuals, or in such quantities to each as the wills and powers of individuals will enable them ultimately to effect by means of exchanges."

"If nature were to distribute, in the first instance, all her goods precisely as they are ultimately distributed previous to consumption, there would be no question of exchange or exchangeable value, and yet the mass of commodities would both exist in a degree of scarcity, and be very unequally divided.”* Again, not only do the circumstances under which commodities are produced frequently undergo a change, but the opinions and wishes of men as regards different commodities are likewise liable to alter: from which proceeds another source of change in value. Nor is it possible to foretell any one of the changes which may take place in its production. Consequently, there is no material whatever whose value may not by change of circumstances become most essentially altered, or, perhaps, entirely lost. Το suppose that any accurate measure of value can exist, so as to be constantly stable under such changes, is completely destructive of all just ideas of the nature of value. The existence of such a fixed and perfect measure of value is in itself impossible; "for as nothing can be a real measure of magnitude and quantity, which is subject to variations in its own dimensions, so nothing can be a real measure of the value of other commodities, which is constantly varying in its own value." In order that any article should possess such an unvarying value, it would be necessary, not only that the wishes of men as regards it should for ever remain unchanged, but that the circumstances of its supply also should either remain so too, or vary only in complete uniformity with every other article. Hence it is evident, that there is nothing which possesses a real, • Malthus, p. 52.

intrinsic, or invariable value, so as that an assumed quantity of it shall at all times and places, and under all changes of circumstances, be of equal value.

Once more, "No one thing can measure another, but that which has the qualities of that other. Thus, what measures weight must have weight; what measures extent must have the same quality. But what quality has an abstract idea by which it can measure the value of a horse, for example, or of a quarter of corn

?

But if we could for a moment suppose, contrary to the nature of things, that anything possessed intrinsic and fixed value, so as that an assumed quantity of it should constantly, and under every change of circumstances, be of equal value, then the degree of value of all other things possessing value, ascertained by such a fixed standard, would vary with a change of any one or more of the following circumstances:

1. More or less fertility in the soil, mines, or fisheries, whence the article, or the materials of which it is composed, are procured; 2. more or less labour necessary to its acquisition, preparation, or distribution; 3. more or less value in that labour; 4. more or less capital required for these purposes; 5. more or less durability in that portion of this capital, which is of a permanent character; 6. more or less time elapsing before the capital is returned to its employer, and becomes available for reproduction; 7. more or less value in its hire; to which may be added, 8. its being more or less the subject of taxation.

Again, besides these eight circumstances which have a tendency ultimately to determine the price of an article, because they affect the remuneration of the producers, and limit the eventual supply, the price is immediately and temporarily altered in every market by competition, and by each change in the relation of the quantity supplied to the demand for it. Although the self-interest of producers constantly tends to an equalization of their emoluments in all employments, yet as capital and workmen cannot be transferred with rapidity from one occupation to another, the different classes of producers acquire temporarily higher or lower gains than the average of other Edinburgh Review, Oct. 1808.

*

employments. Thus the value of an article is temporarily influenced within certain limits by the four following circum

stances.

1. "It is subject to an increase of its value, from a diminution of its quantity. 2. To a diminution of its value, from an augmentation of its quantity. 3. It may suffer an augmentation in its value, from the circumstance of an increased demand. 4. Its value may be diminished by a failure of demand."*

As, however, no commodity can possess fixed and intrinsic value, so as to qualify it for a measure of the value of other commodities, the value of any commodity may vary at one period from what it is at another, in consequence of twenty-four different contingencies:

1. From the twelve circumstances above stated, in relation to the commodity of which the value is meant to be expressed. 2. From the same twelve circumstances, in relation to the commodity adopted as a measure of value; whatever that be, whether gold or silver, or any thing else.

Amongst civilized nations, money has long been the only object of comparison with which the value of things has usually been measured. But it is not at all essential to value that the comparison should be made with money. Every valuable object may be exchanged for every other, and the value of any one would equally serve as an accurate measure of the value of every other. Our Saxon ancestors used cattle for this purpose. The negroes on the coast of Africa use bars of iron; and a great many other articles have at different times, and in different places, been used for the same purpose. A day's labour may be described to be of the value of so many pecks of wheat, or of so many shillings and pence; and the chief superiority of the latter over the former method of comparison consists, in that, from the habitual use of money as the measure of value, the mind has become so familiarized to it, that it can more readily form a conception of the amount, and of its relation to other things, than it would be able to do, if compared with a measure which it had seldom or never before employed in making such comparisons.

• Earl of Lauderdale, p. 13,

The different measures of value in use at different times and in different countries, have possessed some a greater and some a less degree of steadiness and permanence of value. Of these different measures, the precious metals have presented, not only the most convenient, but perhaps the most steady measure. Popular prejudice indeed assigns to them an unalterability of value. But although they afford a complete standard for every thing at the same time and place, and as a practical measure of value are superior to every thing else, as less liable than any other material to the sources before mentioned of variation of value in different times and places, yet a slight reflection is sufficient to convince us that they are not exempted from the operation of all these causes which occasion a change of value, and consequently that they cannot afford a just estimate of the exchangeable value of things in different countries; much less have they presented a fixed and unaltered standard of value of things in the same country in periods of time at remote distances from each other. When we are told that the wages of day-labour in England in the reign of Henry VII. were four-pence a day, this alone affords no sufficient information from which, without further knowledge, we can form a just conception of the actual condition of the working classes at that time. It would be very far from truth to imagine, that the shekel of silver in the days of Abraham afforded a measure of value at all commensurate with the value which is presented in the present day by a quantity of silver of equal weight and fineness. Probably there is no single article with which it would now exchange in the same proportion as it then did. The world has been supplied at different periods from mines of different degrees of richness. This different richness required different quantities of labour to procure the same quantity of metal; and the different degrees of skill applied at different times in the working of mines, must have been another source of variableness in the quantity of labour which a given weight of metal has cost to bring to market. Looking at the history of mankind and of the arts, since the adoption of gold and silver as measures of value, it is unquestionable, that their value has most materially changed in different ages, not only from the discovery of the mines of the