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In all cases it would still be found that, as Adam Smith says, it is the produce which varies, in value, not the labour for which it will exchange; and if money were obtained in the^ way in which its value would unquestionably be the most constant, all these variations would, appear in the money prices of commodities, whenever the demand for labour varied; while the money price of a given quantity of labour would remain the same.[1]
The following Table will further illustrate the necessary constancy in the value of labour, and some of its most important results, in a clearer manner and in a shorter compass than if each case were taken separately.
The, first column represents the yarying fertility of the soil, by the varying quantity of corn which can be obtained by the labour of a given number of men.
- ↑ Mr. Ricardo, by supposing gold to be produced always by a certain quantity of labour and capital, is compelled to acknowledge that his standard "would be a perfect measure of value for all things produced under the same circumstances precisely as itself, but for no others." p. 43. This concession appears to me quite fatal. We want to measure the value of commodities under all circumstances, and it is only gold obtained exclusively by labour, or labour itself, which can do this. See Principles of Political Economy considered with a View to iheir Practical Application, pp. 111 and 118.
