74 ON COMPARING COMMODITIES
tion; for that nobody ever imagined the possi-
bility of comparing the value of any commo-
dity at one period with its value at another,
without reference to some other object, the bare
notion of such a comparison being absurd, and
scarcely susceptible of being stated in intelli-
gible language; and further, that when the
value of a commodity in one year is compared
with its value in another, the very terms neces-
sarily imply a reference to other articles, and
are always so considered.

A slight inspection, however, of our princi-
pal writers will prove, that if I am fighting
with a shadow, which I by no means deny, it is
not one of my own creation. When Mr. Ricardo
tells us, that a commodity always produced by
the same labour is of invariable value, he im-
plicitly maintains all I have been attempting to
disprove. By the epithet invariable he clearly
means, that its value at one time will be pre-
cisely the same as its value at another, not in
relation to other commodities, for he supposes
all other commodities to vary, but in relation to