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to eight per cent, the value of beef compared with corn would fall above twenty per cent.
When commodities are obtained by the assistance of a large proportion of fixed capital of a very durable nature, the advances are only consumed in part, and the whole produce of the accumulated and immediate labour employed must be considered as composed of the new produce obtained, together with the remainder of the fixed capital which is unconsumed.[1] In reference to the separate value of the new produce, this will be the same as if to the labour actually worked up in such produce were added the profits of the whole capital advanced. It sometimes happens that the proportion of value arising from these profits is very considerable; and commodities so produced will necessarily have much less labour worked up in them, and will be much more affected in their value by a rise or fall of profits, than those which are composed mainly of immediate labour.
Thus, if a commodity were produced by the aid of accumulated labour in machinery worth £2,000, the annual wear and tear of which was
- ↑ This is very properly stated by Colonel Torrens, in his Production of Wealth, c. 1. p. 28.
