102

ON MEASURES

measure of value can mean nothing but a com-
modity employed as a medium of comparison,
and that so far from its being impossible to
have any thing perfectly capable of performing
this function, we are in the daily use of one
possessing all the perfection which it is possi-
ble to conceive. Inregard to measuring or com-
paring value, there is no operation which can
be intelligibly described or consistently ima-
gined, but may be performed by the media of
which we are in possession.

It is astonishing, indeed, to find how slight
are the analogies with which economists have
contented themselves on this subject, and which
have served to preclude any close investigation
of processes essentially different, although con-
founded under the same appellation. One of
the most striking instances of this carelessness
of examination is the notion of its being ne-
cessary, that a commodity should possess inva-
riable value, in order to form a perfect mea-
sure of value; a notion which has passed un-
questioned from one writer to another, and been