POLITICAL  ECONOMY

172

It  must  be  firmly  grasped  that  any  class
of  employed  agents  in  production  has  a
marginal  worth  which  varies,  other  things
being  equal,  with  its  supply:  the  larger  the
supply,  in  relation  to  given  supplies  of
other  factors,  the  lower  the  marginal  worth.
It  is  these  marginal  worths,  or  their  equivalents, ­
  which  tend  to  accrue  to  the  agents
in  production  as  their  earnings  ;  and  it  is
vital  to  an  understanding  of  the  economic
functioning  of  a  community  to  recognise  that
in  these  payments  the  value  of  the  things
produced  is  expressed.  Workpeople  have  a
value  to  the  employer  because,  in  conjunction ­
  with  other  agents,  they  create  what  has
a  direct  or  indirect  value  to  consumers.
Their  value  to  the  employer  is  in  effect  the
value  of  what  is  made  transmitted  through
the  demand  of  the  employer;  and  the  value
of  what  is  made  may  actually  originate  in
themselves,  because  it  may  be  settled  on  the
one  side  by  their  own  demand  for  goods.
Similarly  the  value  of  every  other  agent  in
production  is  the  transmitted  value  of  what
it  adds  to  production  at  the  margin.
So  we  may  lay  it  down  in  the  rough  that,
subject  to  reservations  arising  out  of  social
friction,  the  sum  which  each  agent  in  production ­
  (apart  from  the  employer,  whose  case