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labour necessarily bestowed on their production by those who have no such facilities; by those who continue to produce them under the most unfavourable circumstances; meaning-by the most unfavourable circumstances, the most unfavourable under which the quantity of produce required, renders it necessary to carry on the production."*

This is the sense in which we are always to understand the proposition that the value of commodities depends on the cost of their production, or on the quantity of labour required to produce them, and bring them to market. It is not meant to affirm, that the value of every particular hat or bushel of corn offered for sale is determined by the quantity of labour actually expended on its production: What is really meant is, that the value of all the hats, as of all the corn brought to market, is determined by a certain standard; and that this standard is the quantity of labour required to produce that hat, or that bushel of corn, that has been produced with the greatest difficulty.

It is obvious, that no error can arise in estimating the value of raw produce from supposing it to have been wholly raised under the same circumstances as that portion which is raised by means of the capital last applied to the soil: For though por. tions of it may have been raised under very different circumstances, it is certain, that their value must, notwithstanding, be exclusively determined by, and

*

Principles of Political Economy, 3d Edit. p. 60.

identical with the value of that which is raised by this last applied capital. And hence, when a quantity of corn is employed as capital in any industrious undertaking, we are to consider it as being, in fact, either the actual product, or the full equivalent of the product, of a given quantity of the labour of those who raise corn on the worst lands cultivated; and the quantity of labour so wrought up in this capital, or represented by it, must plainly determine the real value of the commodities produced by its agency. This principle holds in the case of all commodities whose quantity admits of being indefinitely extended. On tracing the exchangeable value of any article of this description, we shall find that it is determined, in all ordinary states of the market, by the quantity of labour actually expended on its production, if it is produced under the most unfavourable circumstances, or that is actually expended on similar articles produced under these circumstances.

It being thus established that the circumstance of land being appropriated, and rent paid to the landlords, cannot affect the price of commodities, or make any difference whatever on the principle which regulates their exchangeable value in the earliest stages of society, I proceed, in the next place, to inquire into the effects of the accumulation and employment of capital, and of variations in the rate of wages on the value of commodities.

SECTION VI.

Effect of the employment of Capital in Production, on the Exchangeable Value of Commodities-Effect of Variations in the Rate of Wages on Exchangeable Value—(1.) When the Capitals employed in Production are of the same degree of Durability; and (2.) When they are of different degrees of Durability-Time not to be taken into account in estimating Value-A High Rate of Wages does not lay the Commerce of a Country under any disadvantage.

It has been previously shown, that the quantity of labour required to produce a commodity, and to bring it to market, formed, in the early stages of society, and before capital was accumulated, the sole principle by which its exchangeable value was regulated. But capital is only another name for all those commodities or articles produced by human industry, that can be made directly available, either to the support of man, or to the facilitating of production. It is, in fact, nothing more than the accumulated produce of anterior labour; and when it is employed in the production of commodities, their value must plainly be regulated, not by the quantity of immediate labour only, but by the total quantity, as well of immediate as of accumulated labour, or capi tal, which has been necessarily laid out in their production. Suppose that an individual can, by a day's labour, without the assistance of any capital whatever, kill a deer; but that it requires a day's labour to construct weapons necessary to enable him to kill a bea

ver, and another day's labour to kill it. It is evident, supposing the weapons to have been rendered useless in killing the beaver, that one beaver really took as much labour to kill it as was required to kill two deer, and must, therefore, be worth twice as much. The durability of the weapons, or of the capital employed by the beaver hunter, is obviously an element of the greatest importance in estimating the value of the animals killed by him. Had the weapons been more durable than has been supposed,-had they served, for example, to kill twenty beavers instead of one, then the quantity of labour required to kill a beaver would only have been one-twentieth more than the labour required to kill a deer, and the animals would, of course, have exchanged in that proportion for each other; and it is plain that, with every extension of the durability of the weapons, the value of the deer and the beaver would be brought still nearer to equality.

It appears, therefore, inasmuch as capital is nothing but the accumulated produce of anterior labour, that its employment cannot affect the principle which makes the exchangeable value of commodities dependent on the quantities of labour required for their production. A commodity may be altogether produced by capital, without the co-operation of any immediate labour whatever; and, inasmuch as the value of this capital is regulated and determined by the quantity of labour required for its production, it is obvious, that the value of the commodities produced by its means must at bottom be determined

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by the same quantity of labour: Or a commodity may be partly produced by capital, and partly by immediate labour, and then its exchangeable value will be proportioned to the sum of the two, or, which is still the same thing, to the total quantity of labour bestowed upon it. These principles are almost self-evident, and it is not easy to see how they can be made the subject of dispute or controversy; but a considerable difference of opinion is entertained respecting the effects occasioned by the employment of workmen by capitalists, and by fluctuations in the rate of wages, on value.

It does not, however, seem that there is really much room for these differences. Suppose that a certain quantity of goods, a pair of stockings for example, manufactured by independent workmen, freely exchanges for a pair of gloves also manufactured by independent workmen, they will continue to exchange in this proportion, provided the quantities of labour required for their production continue invariable, after the workmen have been employed by some master manufacturer. In the first case it is true, as Dr Smith has observed, that the whole goods produced by the workmen belong to themselves, and that, in the second case, they have to share them with their employers. But it must be recollected, that in the first case the capital, or accumulated labour, made use of in the production of the commodities, belonged to the workmen, and that, in the latter case, it has been furnished them by others. The question then comes to be, Can the circumstance

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