A MEASURE AND A CAUSE OF VALUE. 173
logues asserting, that Mr. Ricardo did not
propose his principle of value (namely, the
quantity of labour) as the measure of value.
The fact is, that he sometimes speaks of it as
the cause, and sometimes as the measure, in
such a way as proves that he had not attained
to any distinct conception of the difference be-
tween the two ideas.

Thus in the first section of his book he ac-
cuses Adam Smith of erecting the labour, which
a commodity will command, into a standard
measure, instead of the labour bestowed on its
production, the latter of which he asserts to
be, ¢ under many circumstances, an invariable
standard, indicating correctly the variations
of other things*.” Farther on he speaks of es-
timating food and necessaries * by the quantity
of labour necssary for their production ;” con-
trasting it with measuring them “by the quan-
tity of labour for which they will exchange? .”

In the second section, after speaking of la-
* Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Pp. 5,
3d edition.
+ Ibid, p. 7. The Italics are Mr. Ricardos