OF VALUE.

185

In order to answer this question, it will be
necessary to attempt some classification of ex-
changeable articles.

Commodities, or things possessing value,
may be divided into three classes.

I. Commodities which are monopolized, or
protected from competition by natural or ad-
ventitious circumstances.

2. Commodities, in the production of which
some persons possess greater facilities than
the rest of the community, and which there-
fore the competition of the latter cannot in-
crease, except at a greater cost.

3. Commodities, in the production of which
competition operates without restraint.

A cursory attention to these classes will at
once show, that their respective causes of value
cannot be the same. Let us therefore take them
in detail, and examine the causes operating on
each class.

1. Monopolies may be divided into two kinds;
those in which there is only one interest con-