244 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

méraire dont Ia valeur varierait, soit dans le méme temps
dans différens endroits, soit dans le méme endroit dans dif-
férens temps; il ne pourrait guere servir 3 mesurer d’au-
tres valeurs.” — Cours D’Economie Politique, par Henri
Storch, Premitre Partie, liv. v, chap. 2,

¢¢ Silver is more valuable, when it will purchase a large
quantity of commodities, than when it will purchase a
smaller quantity. It cannot, therefore, serve as a mea-
sure, the first requisite of which is invariability.” — 4
Treatise on Pol. Econ., by J. B. Say, translated from the
French, by C. R. Prinsep, book i, chap. 21.

‘¢ When commodities varied in relative value, it would be
desirable to have the means of ascertaining which of them
fell and which rose in real value, and this could be effected
only by comparing them, one after another, with some in-
variable standard measure of value, which should itself be
subject to none of the fluctnations to which other commo-
dities are exposed.” — Principles of Pol. Econ. and Taza-
tion, by D. Ricardo, Esq., page 42, third edition.

*¢ Labour, like all other commodities, varies, from its
plenty or scarcity compared with the demand for it, and
at different times, and in different countries, commands very
different quantities of the first necessary of life; and fur-
ther, from the different degrees of skill, and of assistance
from machinery with which labour is applied, the products
of labour are not in proportion to the quantity exerted.
Consequently, labour, in any sense in which the term can