Definitions in Political Economy, / Preceded by an Inquiry Into the Rules which Ought to Guide Political Economists in the Definition and Use of Their Terms; with Remarks on the Deviation from These Rules in Their Writings

by T. R. Malthus

[71]. Dissertation on Value, c. vi. p. 113, et seq.

[72]. Dissertation on Value, c. vi. p. 110.

[73]. Dissertation on Value, c. vi. p. 102.

[74]. Dissertation on Value, c. vi. p. 120.

[75]. Dissertation on Value, c. vi. p. 122.

[76]. Dissertation on Value, c. vi. p. 121.

[77]. Wealth of Nations, b. i. c. xi. p. 291, 6th edit.

[78]. Dissertation on Value, c. vii. p. 140.

[79]. Dissertation on Value, c. vi. p. 145.

[80]. It has always been a matter of great surprise to me that I should have been accused of arbitrarily adopting labour as the measure of value. If there be not a most marked and characteristic distinction between labour and any product of labour, I do not know where a characteristic distinction between two objects is to be found; and surely I have stated this distinction often enough, and brought forward the peculiar qualities of labour as my reasons for thinking that it may be taken as a measure of value. Opinions may differ as to the sufficiency of these reasons, or as to the degree of accuracy with which it will serve the purpose of a measure. But how it can be said that I have adopted it arbitrarily, is quite unintelligible to me. If I had merely stated, that I had adopted it because it was the main element in the natural costs of production, there could have been no ground for such a charge.