OF VALUE.

15

however, would be evidently incorrect, unless
the value of an object were something intrinsic,
and independent of other commodities; but
since value, as I have shown, is essentially rela-
tive, if any commodities had fallen in relation
to cloth, cloth must have acquired additional
value, or have risen in relation to those com-
modities.
Mr. Ricardo’s proposition might, indeed, be
true, if he meant by other commodities only a
certain number of other commodities. These,
for convenience, may be termed Class 1, and
all commodities not included in Class 1 may
be referred to Class 2. Now if Mr. Ricardo
meant, that when Class 1 came to be produced
with increased facility, so as to exchange for
half the quantity of cloth, while Class 2, in
point of facility of production, remained as be-
fore, cloth would. retain its former value in
relation to Class 2, he would be perfectly
correct; but if this had been his meaning,
there could have been no point of dispute be-
tween him and the author on whose language
he is animadverting ; and that it was not what