INTRODUCTORY

II

It is best to employ the word value to designate the
latter aspect of the importance of commodities, and to
denote the former by the word utility or value-in-use. In
view of certain striking features of resemblance between the
two aspects of the property in question, it may be asked why
the word value is proposed to be restricted in its application
so as to refer to the latter case only, when used alone and
without qualification, expressed or implied in the context.
The reason is not far to seek. In the one case we are concerned
 with an estimation which is personal, private, peculiar.
In the other, the private and personal features are obscured,
at any rate when the exchange of the goods is conducted in
an open market where many dealers meet. The peculiarities
of the individual estimation count for but little in the face
of many other estimates. The property we call value thus
comes to be based on something else than the idiosyncrasies
of the individual who happens to own the commodity whose
value is in question. Value may almost be said to denote
the public aspect of the quality which, in its private aspect,
we call utility. Another view of the relation between these
Jualities is presented in the next chapter.
Reference to the discussion on the connotation of the word
wealth will show that it is applied to all goods which have
exchange value. Where utility is absent, exchange value is
nil, and the objects in question will not be wealth. If goods
have value in exchange, they must be capable of change of
ownership, and not be freely available in unlimited amount.
Thus wealth comprises goods which have value, or valuable
utilities, Economic studies deal with man’s relation to
wealth as consumer and as producer. In modern life the
consumer of goods is not generally also their producer.
One fabricates, another uses. The maker gets his livelihood
by exchanging his products for other products. This
exchange is covered by a sale of the products for money,
and a purchase of articles for consumption out of the proceeds.
The fact of the exchange being one of product for product is
not altered by separating the transaction into two stages.
Exchange is the pivot on which all the rest of economic
organisation turns, The terms on which exchanges can be