[81]. Dissertation on Value, c. vii. p. 148.
[82]. Dissertation on Value, c. vii. p. 150.
[83]. On the Production of Wealth, c. i. p. 56.
[84]. I am very ready to include myself among those political economists who have not been sufficiently attentive to this subject.
[85]. If in a foreign country, in which the relation of money to men and labour was unknown to us, we were told that a quarter of corn was selling for four ounces of silver, we should not know whether there was a famine, and corn was held in the highest estimation, or whether there was a glut of corn, and it was held in the lowest estimation. The very term estimation, as applied to commodities, must of necessity refer to man and labour.
[86]. It is a truth fruitful in important consequences, that the labour which commodities will command when in their natural state, by representing accurately the quantity of labour and profits necessary to produce them, must represent accurately the effectual demand for them. And this holds good at different places and times, referring of course to the labour of the same description at each place and time.
[87]. What could give us any information respecting the scarcity of a commodity in China, or the state of its supply as compared with the demand, but a reference to Chinese labour?
[88]. Principles of Polit. Econ., c. i. s. i. p. 5. 3d edit.
[89]. M. Say’s comprehensive expression, “Services productifs,” includes profits and rents as well as labour; but it is certain that labour will measure accurately the value of the whole amount of these services.
[90]. If this concession be once made, the whole question respecting labour as a measure of value is at once decided.