NOMINAL VALUE.

41

thing might at once become more valuable, by
requiring at once more labour for its production,
a position utterly at variance with the truth, that
value denotes the relation in which commodi-
ties stand to each other as articles of exchange.
Real value, in a word, is on this theory con-
sidered as being the independent result of la-
bour; and consequently, if under any circum-
stances the quantity of labour is increased, the
real value is increased. Hence the paradox,
“ that it is possible for A continually to in-
crease in value —in rea! value observe — and
yet command a continually decreasing quantity
of B*:” and this although they were the only
commodities in existence. For it must not be
supposed that the author means, that A might in-
crease in value in relation to a third commodity
C, while it commanded a decreasing quantity of
B—a proposition which is too self-evident to
be insisted on; but he means that a might in-
* Templars’ Dialogues, in London Magazine for May,
1824, p. 551.