SUPPLY AND VALUE 63

value produced. It is necessary to be wary, however, in
regard to the relation between cost and value. As shown,
were cost negligible, value would be non-existent, Without
cost, or rather without the scarcity which cost connotes,
value would not appear. In this sense cost may be said to
be a cause of value. But cost alone cannot be considered as
the source of value. Were utility not present, scarcity, and
its correlative cost, could not call forth value. Value is, in
fact, the joint product of utility and of scarcity, and, of the
latter, cost is, in the majority of cases, an index.
If we may assume effective competition on both sides,
that is, both on the side of buyers and on that of producers
and sellers, the establishment of a definite value for a
commodity results in a situation which may be briefly
summed up thus, All who set upon any supplies of the
commodity a valuation not less than the exchange value,
will secure the supplies thus valued. On the other hand, all
who can produce, and bring to market, supplies at a price
not exceeding the exchange value are induced to do so. If
the amount thus brought forward be sufficient, and not more
than sufficient, to meet the requirements thus called into
being, there is no reason for a change in the level of exchange
value. If not, then some change will be likely to result,
which may be said to aim at finding a value which will fulfil
this condition. Many desires remain unsatisfied, perhaps,
but they are desires the strength of which is insufficient to
secure the commodity at its current value. Many would-be
producers may fail to find employment for their energies in
producing the commodity, but that is due to the fact of the
value resulting from their efforts being insufficient to yield a
sufficient recompense.
Modifications of value may arise from changes of either
the utility or the conditions of production of the commodity
whose value is in question, or changes in regard to other
commodities in reference to which its value is estimated.
Considerations of the former nature cover sufficiently what
may be said of the latter. Changes in the utility of a
commodity, or, what amounts to the same thing, in the
estimate of its utility formed by a would-be consumer, may