EXAMINATION OF THE DOCTRINES OF VALUE, AS SET FORTH BY ADAM SMITH, RICARDO, M'CULLOCH, PREFACE. 66 IN differing from some of the most distinguished economists of the past and present day respecting the law which determines value in exchange, I have not been unsusceptible of diffidence in laying my view of the subject before the tribunal of public opinion. This diffidence of feeling, however, has not prevented me from stating my principles, nor from commenting with that freedom which the interests of science require" on such parts of the works of economists as were at variance with my own opinions, and which I considered as obstacles in the pursuit of truth. How far I have been successful in removing old impediments, or avoiding the substitution of any additional, the reader will best judge. It will, however, afford me considerable pleasure, if the prediction of Colonel Torrens respecting the probable union of economists on this subject, be shortly fulfilled; as the laws which affect the distribution of wealth can never be generally or clearly known until this anticipated union is accomplished. . Especially as the MS. originally intended for publication, and submitted for perusal to gentleman, has been unfortunately mislaid by him. The following pages therefore were hastily re-composed, in the midst of other and most pressing engagements, from such memoranda as were preserved 363501 With respect to the controversial character of the following pages, 1 can only say it was unavoidable in consequence of my theory involving positive differences from other economists; but respecting the form of it, I must be permitted to give some explanation. It is allowed that the division of Mr. Ricardo's chapter on value admits of considerable improvement. In following therefore his arrangement, I have necessarily participated in his defect; this, however, appeared to me more than balanced by the advantage it afforded me of following him step by step, and of very particularly and minutely scrutinizing his opinions. I have, therefore, divided my work into the same number of sections which I find in Mr. Ricardo's chapter on value; and by making his doctrines in each the text of my remarks, I have, at the same time, been enabled more conveniently to investigate the opinions of other economists, both such as have attached themselves to the Ricardo school and such as are opposed to it. In the investigation, brevity (so far as was consistent with perspicuity) has been a principal object; though the intricacy of the subject not only admits but requires more copious illustrations than many subjects which are less abstract. In consequence of the form selected, it will be seen that various arguments and principles have been unavoidably repeated. The most important features in the following pages appear to me to consist in shewing the efficient and determining cause of value-the effect of alterations in wages on value under different proportions of fixed and circulating capital, &c.-the conditions necessary to a standard of value-and in confuting, as I conceive, the erroneous doctrine that the supposition of such a standard involves contradictory conditions. 1 am far from supposing that every opinion disclosed is free from error or objection; the subject, however, I trust, will not suffer under my criticism. On the contrary, I hope it may be found I have acted as a pioneer, rather than an obstructer of the way on which subsequent adventurers may desire to travel. It is scarcely necessary to say that political economy is a very useful and important science; that which explains the phenomena of the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth, can only be thought useless and unimportant by the ignorant and prejudiced. While the world is much indebted to the astronomer for his discovery of distant orbs, and to the chemist for some important analytical processes, society is much more indebted to that science which discloses the hidden causes of wealth, thus furnishing the fund from which scientific and literary men draw their encouragement and subsistence. Were the laws of wealth more generally studied, those ebbs and flows of commerce, and those violent convulsions which shake society to its base, would, if not entirely prevented, at least be modified in |