Le

ON MEASURES

stand by a measure of value, is some commodity
 which would serve as a medium to ascertain
 the relation subsisting between two other
commodities, that we had no means of bringing
into direct comparison. Thus, if I wished to
know the relation in exchange between corn
and cloth, and there happened to be no instance
 of direct barter of one of these commodities
 for the other, I could acquire the desired
information only by ascertaining their relations
to a third commodity. Supposing this commodity
 to be money, if a yard of cloth were worth
L0s., and a bushel of corn 5s., I should learn
immediately that a yard of cloth was worth
two bushels of corn, and would have an equal
power of commanding all other things in exchange,
 silver in this instance being the commodity
 employed as a measure. This kind of
measure of value, which is merely a medium of
comparison, and obviously quite dissimilar to a
measure of length, is the only one which it is
possible to have; and although money is the
measure generally employed, and by far the