ral prices, the quantity of labour directly applied to the production of a particular article were to absorb exactly one half, three fourths, or any definite proportion of the whole value, as the demand for this proportion, whatever it might be, the half we will suppose, might be represented and measured by an amount of labour equal in quantity and quality to that which had been actually employed upon the commodity, it is obvious that an equivalent to double the quantity of such labour would be an effectual demand for the whole article produced, involving profits, rent, taxes, or any other accession to the difficulty of bringing the commodity to market, besides that which is occasioned by the necessary quantity of labour to be advanced.
Having this π(
Greek characters) στω, this foundation to go upon, in all commodities, namely, the quantity of immediate labour actually worked up in them, the above conclusion seems to follow necessarily; that is, if a certain quantity of labour will represent and measure the demand for an aliquot part of the value of a commodity, the proper multiple of that quantity of labour must represent and measure the demand for the whole; and as there is no object but labour which can represent and measure the demand for that aliquot of the value of a commodity which consists of immediate labour, it follows necessarily that there is no object but labour which can represent and measure the demand for the whole of a commodity, the value of which is made up of various ingredients besides labour.
When, therefore, owing to changes in the value of money, relatively to labour, we can no longer represent a given demand by a given quantity of money, it appears that we may with accuracy represent such demand by a given quantity of labour.
It follows, therefore, that the power of commanding a given quantity of labour of a given character, together with the will to advance it, represents a given demand. It should be particularly observed, however, that this power is never possessed by the labourers
