OF VALUE.

213

little variable as here represented, it proves
only that they are circumstances which perma-
nently affect value, and that it must be alto-
gether incorrect to designate quantity of labour
the sole cause, when quality of labour is so
steady in its effects. This cause of value is, in
fact, on precisely the same footing as any
other. A variation in it, small or great, would
occasion a corresponding variation in the value
of the article on which the labour was em-
ployed ; and however inconsiderable its effects
may be, they cannot be consistently either
denied or overlooked. The whole of the sec-
tion appears to have been dictated by a lurking
impatience of any thing which seemed to break
into the beautiful simplicity of the rule, that
value is determined by quantity of labour. Else
why not freely allow the exceptions wherever
they occur, and qualify the expression of the
general rule accordingly * 7”

* The only place in Mr. Ricardo’s work, where I have
been able to find the expression of the general rule pro-