The tendency of some of our most popular writers to innovate without improving, and their marked inattention to facts, leading necessarily to differences of opinion and uncertainty of conclusion, have been the main causes which have of late thrown some discredit on the science of political economy. Nor can this be a matter of much surprise, though it may be of regret.
At a period, when all the merchants of our own country, and many in others, find the utmost difficulty in employing their capitals so as to obtain ordinary profits, they are repeatedly told that, according to the principles of political economy, no difficulty can ever be found in employing capital, if it be laid out in the production of the proper articles; and that any distress which they may have suffered is exclusively owing to a wrong application of their capital, such as “the production of cottons, which were not wanted, instead of broad cloths, which were wanted.”[[49]] They are, further, gravely assured, that if they find any difficulty in exchanging what they have produced, for what they wish to obtain for it, “they have an obvious resource at hand; they can abandon the production of the commodities which they do not want, and apply themselves directly to the production of those that they do want, or of substitutes for them;”[[50]] and this consolatory recommendation is perhaps addressed to a merchant who is desirous of obtaining, by the employment of his capital at the ordinary rate of profits, such an income as will enable him to get a governess for his daughters, and to send his boys to school and college.
At such times, assertions like these, and the proposal of such a remedy, appear to me little different from an assertion, on supposed philosophical principles, that it cannot rain, when crowds of people are getting wet through, and the proposal to go without clothes in order to prevent the inconvenience arising from a wet coat. If assertions so contrary to the most glaring facts, and remedies so preposterously ridiculous, in a civilized country,[[51]] are said to be dictated by the principles of political economy, it cannot be matter of wonder that many have little faith in them. And till the theories of popular writers on political economy cease to be in direct opposition to general experience; and till some steadiness is given to the science by a greater degree of care among its professors, not to alter without improving,—it cannot be expected that it should attain that general influence in society which (its principles being just) would be of the highest practical utility.
Chapter VIII.
ON THE DEFINITION AND USE OF TERMS BY THE AUTHOR OF “A CRITICAL DISSERTATION ON THE NATURE, MEASURE, AND CAUSES OF VALUE.”
It might be thought that I was not called upon to notice the deviations from the most obvious rules for the use of terms in a Critical Dissertation on the Nature, Measure, and Causes of Value, by an anonymous writer. But the great importance of the subject itself at the present moment, when it may be said to be sub judice, the tone of scientific precision in which the dissertation is written, notwithstanding its fundamental errors, and the impression which it is understood to have made among some considerable political economists, seem to call for and justify attention to it.
The author, in his preface, observes, that “Writers on political economy have generally contented themselves with a short definition of the term value, and a distinction of the property denoted by it into several kinds, and have then proceeded to employ the word with various degrees of laxity. Not one of them has brought into distinct view the nature of the idea represented by this term, or the inferences which a full perception of its meaning immediately suggests; and the neglect of this preliminary has created differences of opinion and perplexities of thought which otherwise could never have existed.”[[52]]
Now it appears to me, that the author, at his first setting out, has in an eminent degree fallen into the very errors which he has here animadverted upon.
He begins by stating, very justly, that “value, in its ultimate sense, appears to mean the esteem in which any object is held;” and then proceeds to state, in the most lax and inconsequent manner, that “It is only when objects are considered together as subjects of preference or exchange that the specific feeling of value can arise. When they are so considered, our esteem for one object, or our wish to possess it, may be equal to, or greater, or less than our esteem for another; it may, for instance, be doubly as great, or, in other words, we would give one of the former for two of the latter. So long as we regarded objects singly, we might feel a great degree of admiration or fondness for them, but we could not express our emotions in any definite manner. When, however, we regard two objects, as subjects of choice or exchange, we appear to acquire the power of expressing our feelings with precision; we say, for instance, that one a is, in our estimation, equal to two b.... The value of a is expressed by the quantity b, for which it will exchange, and the value of b is, in the same way, expressed by the quantity of a.”[[53]]
So, then, it appears, as a consequence of value, meaning the esteem in which an object is held, that if there were two sorts of fruit in a country, called a and b, both very plentiful in the summer, and both very scarce in the winter; and if in both seasons they were to bear the same relation to each other, the feelings of the inhabitants with regard to the fruit a would be expressed with precision, by saying that, as it would always command the same quantity of the fruit b, it would continue to be of the same value—that is, would be held in the same estimation in summer as in winter.
It appears, further, that in a country where there were only deer, and no beavers or other products to compare them with, the specific feeling of value for deer could not arise among the inhabitants; although, on account of the high esteem in which they were held, any man would willingly walk fifty miles in order to get one!! These are, to be sure, very strange conclusions, but they follow directly from the previous statements.