A MEASURE AND A CAUSE OF VALUE. 175
the cause of value, in confirmation of a propo-
sition that it is the measure of value.

Mr. Malthus, who has himself fallen into
the same confusion of ideas and terms, is suf-
ficiently justified by these passages in attri-
buting to Mr. Ricardo the act of bringing
forward his principle as a measure. That
Mr. Ricardo has more frequently spoken of it
as a cause of value, only proves that he has
deviated into inconsistencies. How the author
of the Dialogues could be led to maintain, in the
face of these passages, that “ Mr. Ricardo
never dreamed of offering it as a standard or
measure of value,” it is difficult to imagine.

It will possibly be urged by the admirers of
Mr. Ricardo, in order to defend him from the
charge of inconsistency or ambiguity of lan-
guage, that if quantity of labour is truly the
sole cause of value, then it must also be a cor-
rect measure or criterion of value ; and as one
of these circumstances necessarily follows the
other, it is indifferent in which capacity we
speak of it.