race, and lays under contribution the four quarters of the globe, to supply his daily wants.

How is it that, while, in these days, men will not often labor for nothing, and while the artisan himself produces nothing but the fraction of a pin, he is still able to consume so great a variety of products, and to make the industry of so vast a multitude tributary to his comforts? The answer may be given in one word, by exchange. As human labor is the only motive power, so capability of exchange is the sole directing agent, in the great social machine for the production of wealth. The immediate measure of the wealth, when produced, is, not its utility, but its exchangeable value; and Political Economy itself, as I have already remarked, has been denominated Catallactics, or the Science of Exchanges.

We come, then, to an analysis of exchangeable value, in order to find a basis for the theory of wealth. What is it that constitutes value in exchange, and why do various articles possess it in such unequal proportions? The answer is, that exchangeable value consists of two elements, utility, and difficulty of attainment. The article valued must in some measure be useful; that is, it must be adapted to satisfy, either directly or indirectly, some natural want or artificial desire of men and it must also be more or less difficult to be had. These elements may coexist in very dif ferent proportions; but, in one degree or another, they must both be present, or the article has no value in exchange. It may, for instance, be very useful; it may be an article of prime necessity, absolutely essential to the existence of man. Yet if there be no difficulty in the way of its attainment, if, like the air, the water, and the sunlight, the supply of it be inexhaustible, and open to all the world, then it has no exchangeable value. It forms no part of what is usually called wealth. Supply the element which was lacking, — only make the article hard to be procured, as water is in the midst of the sandy desert of Sahara, or as air was to Mr. Holwell and his companions in the Black Hole at Calcutta, — and men will give all that they have in the world for a single draught of either. On the other hand, it may be very difficult of attainment; it may, like some of the most refined products of chemical analysis, require the labor of years, the greatest scientific skill, and an expenditure of the most costly materials, before it can be procured. Yet if it be not useful, if it do not satisfy some want or desire,

it com

however artificial or irrational that desire may be, mands no price in the market; it has no exchangeable value.

But we do not here speak of abstract utility, or of that utility which is determined by reason and measured by a philosophical standard. Utility here means nothing but fitness or capability to satisfy any desire of men, however unreasonable, extravagant, or capricious that desire may be. If men are so foolish as to prize highly many articles which answer no purposes but of vain ostentation or gross and sensual enjoyment, it is not for the political economist, who views things only as they are, not as they ought to be, to censure their folly. He leaves this office to the moralist or the preacher. The fact that such articles are coveted, from whatever motive, is enough to bring them within his definition of wealth; which definition, it is evident, only expresses the common sentiment of mankind.

As the words value and utility are often used in the moralist's sense, or according to their philosophical import, it is necessary to give this caution once for all, that whenever in future they are here used, they must be understood only in their politico-economical signification. By value, we mean only exchangeable value; by utility, we mean only that utility which is an element of wealth, and which consists in fitness to satisfy any want or desire, however irrational, that is felt by any number of men.

This analysis of value, this explanation of what wealth is, leads us immediately to an understanding of the manner in which wealth is created. As the essence of value consists in difficulty of attainment, so the labor which overcomes that difficulty is the great means of producing value, or creating wealth; and everything which diminishes that difficulty is to be considered as labor, — is entitled to be called by that name, for it is recognized and compensated as such by the community. And here is the great paradox of Political Economy: - Value depends on difficulty of attainment ; the only way of creating values is to lessen or overcome that difficulty; but as soon as all difficulty is overcome, when there is no longer any obstacle in the way between man and the gratification of his desire, then exchangeable value also disappears, and the boundless wealth, which seemed just within our grasp, is suddenly changed, as by a magical incantation, into dross or nothingness.

This paradox is not created merely by an abuse of abstract defini

tions and theoretical reasoning. The seeming contradiction is a literal fact, as may be clearly shown by a practical illustration. Gold surely possesses the highest value in exchange, and is eminently difficult of attainment. The story, first promulgated in the winter of 1848-49, that it abounded in the soil of California, caused as much excitement and agitation in this country, and indeed throughout the civilized world, as would have been created by another battle of Waterloo. Did it ever occur to any of the gold-hunters at that time, that their hopes would be just as much frustrated by finding that the precious metal there was too plentiful, as by ascertaining that it was not to be found at all? Let us suppose that the most exaggerated reports had been correct, that all the rocks of the Sierra Nevada itself were composed in great part of gold, that there were gold mountains in California, just as there are iron mountains in Missouri. Is it not certain that the value of gold all over the world, almost at once, would sink to about the same point with iron? Then carry the supposition one step farther. Imagine that it is not necessary to go to California for this metal, but that our own streets are paved and our gutters lined with gold, which also, in lumps, strews the whole face of the country. Is it not evident, that it would instantly become as valueless as the stones and dirt which now cover our streets and roads?

How vain, then, is it to expect that wealth can ever be created without labor, which is its natural and necessary price! Gold is now so precious precisely because so much labor is required to obtain it. What a pity it is that the old alchemists, many of whom were the most learned men of their times, and who wasted fortune and life in their vain pursuit, could not have foreseen that the philosopher's stone, when discovered, would be as worthless as another stone, which should have the property of turning everything it touched into granite!

The useful metals, generally, possess value just in proportion to the fewness and unproductiveness of the mines whence they are obtained, and to the labor required for bringing them to market and giving them the forms and qualities that fit them for use. Iron in this country owes nearly all its value to the labor expended in extracting it from the ore and manufacturing it; for iron ore is so plentiful that, except in a few favorable localities, where fuel is

abundant and transportation easy, an acre of ground with iron ore for its surface is worth hardly as much as the same extent of fertile land. Yet fine steel cutlery and watch-springs, which are only iron in a highly finished state, sell at a high price by the ounce. Copper, again, being more rare, and the mines of it less productive, owes its value chiefly to its scarcity, or the labor required for finding it and bringing it from a distance. Yet it is so natural an illusion to believe that the high value of these metals in their manufactured state attaches to them also when they are in the ore, that a mining mania is more easily excited in the community than any other speculative bubble.

What I have called the paradox of political economy, like the hydrostatic paradox, is really very simple, and admits of an easy explanation. In proportion as the labor required for obtaining any useful article is diminished, and the article itself consequently becomes very common, in that proportion it approximates the character of those invaluable gifts of Providence, the air, the water, and the sunlight, which, because they are common and inexhaustible, have natural, but no exchangeable, value. They become natural wealth, they cease to be artificial wealth. Man does not, in the economical sense, value them, or consider them as wealth, because he is not able to exchange them for those things which can be procured only by labor; or, in other words, he cannot purchase labor with them. The possession of them conveys no distinction, does not exalt one above his fellows, gives no power over other men. Each of them satisfies one imperative want, and in this respect is truly invaluable; but it does not possess that quality which is characteristic of all articles that are usually considered as wealth;

any one of these may be bartered for more or less of any article or product whatsoever that the possessor may desire. We are wont to consider money as the universal medium of exchange, though it is only a contrivance for facilitating it: this is a consequence of the popular delusion which confounds money with wealth. Any portion of wealth, any article of value, is, like Fortunatus's wishing-cap, a means of obtaining, to the extent of its exchangeable value, whatever other article we may desire; the contrivance of money rendering the process of obtaining it by exchange a very simple one. This Protean character of wealth, this capability of satisfying whatever want or whim the heart of man can conceive,

is, like the ductility of gold, its most peculiar and attractive quality.

And here we perceive the explanation of the fact which has so often been a topic of complaint, that the pecuniary wages or earnings of scientific and literary men are, with a few rare exceptions, very inconsiderable. The inadequacy of the pecuniary compensation of these persons "arises from a variety of causes; but principally, perhaps, from the indestructibility, if we may so term it, and rapid circulation of their works and inventions. The cloth of the manufacturer and the corn of the agriculturist are speedily consumed, and there is therefore a continual demand for fresh supplies of the same articles. Such, however, is not the case with new inventions, new theories, or new literary works. They may be universally made use of, but they cannot be consumed. The moment that the invention of logarithms, the mode of spinning by rollers, and the discovery of the cow-pox had been published, they were rendered imperishable, and every one was in a condition to profit by them. It was no longer necessary to resort to their authors. The results of their researches had become public property, had conferred new powers on every individual, and might be applied by any one." As they can no longer be appropriated, the difficulty of attainment, which is a necessary element of artificial wealth, is entirely removed; they therefore cease to possess exchangeable value, and become a part of what we have called the natural wealth of mankind.

Observe, moreover, that it is in the highest departments of literature and science that labor is most imperfectly remunerated ; in those of a lower rank, in adapting to popular comprehension and purposes of practical utility the ideas and discoveries of others, tact and industry may often reap a considerable pecuniary reward. Hence, invention is usually more profitable than discovery; a new machine may create a fortune for its inventor, whilst the discoverer of those abstract principles of science, or general laws of nature, which are applied in the mechanical improvement, or are presupposed in the construction of it, can obtain no compensation but the fame of his labors and the gratitude of posterity. No one thinks of rewarding the heirs of Franklin and Ersted for those discoveries in electricity and electro-magnetism to which we are primarily indebted for the lightning-rod, the electrotype, and the