18

ON THE VALUE

the term value of labour instead of wages, as
might be done if the two expressions were
used as synonymousand equivalent. We could
not speak with propriety of ‘the labour and
capital employed in producing the value of
labour,” or of ¢ the real value of the value of
labour.”

The term wages, when thus used, appears intended
 to denote the commodities or money
given to the labourer in exchange for his labour
 —not the value of his labour in money, but
the money itself. This is either an unwarrantable
 use of the term, or there is a double meaning
 in it as Ithink alittle consideration will show,
although the distinction, which I shall attempt
to make, may seem on a first glance to be adistinction
 without a difference. It will be acknowledged,
 that the value of labour can be expressed
 only by the quantity of some commodity
given for a definite portion of it. Thus, if silver
is that commodity, the value of a day’s labour is
expressed by the quantity of silver, or, what is
the same thing, the number of shillings which