OF VALUE.

21

stance of its being produced by a certain quan-
tity of labour constitutes its value, indepen-
dently of any other circumstances. Whatever
variations there might be in the quantities of
other things which this object commanded,
it would be still of the same value, because pro-
duced by the same labour.

These authors appear to have had an un-
steady apprehension of a sufficiently distinct
Proposition, and one, too, on which they have
largely insisted, namely, that the values of com-
modities are in the same ratio as the quantities
of labour bestowed upon them. Sometimes
they have apparently construed this to mean,
that the value of any one commodity is in pro-
portion to the labour employed upon it. Be-
cause the values of A and B, according to their
doctrine, are to each other as the quantities of
Producing labour, or, as it is sometimes ex-
Pressed, are determined by the quantities of pro-
ducing labour, they appear to have concluded,
that the value of a alone, without reference to
any thing else, is as the quantity of its pro-