110

ON MEASURES
two commodities, which we were désirous of
comparing, were expressed in different media,
there would be the same impossibility. Hence,
if in the case of value we were under the neces-
sity of finding a counterpart to invariableness
of length in the instrument employed to com-
pare the dimensions of two objects, it would be,
not invariableness of value in the commodity
used as a medium to compare the value of two
other commodities, but the condition that the
value of these commodities should be given
in relation to the same medium, or, in other
words, expressed in a common denomination.

From all this it appears, that the analogy uni-
versally supposed to exist in this matter is al-
together imaginary, and the phrase, invariable
measure of value, proves to be absolutely des-
titute of a basis of meaning.
The doctrine which exacts invariableness in
a measure of value, furnishes one corollary,
which has been so frequently maintained and
so generally adopted, that although its refuta-
tion is contained in the preceding observations,