118

ON MEASURES

a good measure of the value of commodities at
different periods, is either false or amounts to
nothing. If it means that money is not equally
a good measure of contemporary commodities
at any period, it is directly opposite to the
truth : if it means that it is not a good me-
dium of comparison between commodities at
different periods, it asserts its incapability of
performing a function in a case where there is
no function for it to perform.

In applying the principles developed in the
preceding disquisition to the writings of Mr. Ri-
cardo, we shall find that he has fallen into the
same errors as his predecessors and contempo-
raries, as well as into others peculiarly his own.
Misled by his radical misconception of the na-
ture of value, and particularly by his notions
on the subject of real value, he has opened his
section “ on an invariable measure,” with the
following passage, the errors of which will be
sufficiently apparent to any one who has attended
to the foregoing part of the present chapter.

“ When commodities,” says Mr. Ricardo,