72 ON COMPARING COMMODITIES 
that we can do is to compare the relation in 
which cloth stood at each period to some other 
commodity. When we say, that an article in a 
former age was of a certain value, we mean, 
that it exchanged for a certain quantity of 
some other commodity. But this is an in- 
applicable expression in speaking of only one 
commodity at two different periods. We can- 
not say, that a pair of stockings in James the 
First's reign would exchange for six pair in our 
own day; and we therefore cannot say, that a 
pair in James the First's reign was equal in 
value to six pair now, without reference to 
some other article. 
Value is a relation between contemporary 
commodities, because such only admit of being 
exchanged for each other; and if we compare 
the value of a commodity at one time with its 
value at another, it is only a comparison of the 
relation in which it stood at these different 
times to some other commodity. It is not a 
comparison of some intrinsic, independent qua- 
lity at one period, with the same quality at