belonging to the other; and a bushel of corn may possibly be exchanged for eight pints of wine, while another bushel will be exchanged for only four pints. Now it is evident that no one of these three prices can be regarded as the true price[1] of a bushel of corn rather than the others; for with each of the contracting parties the wine he has received was the equivalent of the corn he has given: in a word, so long as we consider each exchange as isolated and standing by itself, the value of each of the things exchanged has no other measure than the need or the desire and the means of the contracting parties, balanced one against the other, and it is fixed by nothing but the agreement of their will.
S32
How the current value[2] establishes itself in the exchange of commodities.
However, it happens sometimes that several Individuals have wine to offer to the man who has corn: if one is not willing to give more than four pints for a bushel, the Proprietor of the corn will not give him his corn, when he comes to learn that someone else will give him six or eight pints for the same bushel. If the former wishes to have corn, he will be obliged to raise the price to the level of him who offers more. The Sellers of wine profit on their side by the competition among the Sellers of corn: no one makes up his mind to part with his commodity until he has compared the different offers that are made to
