142 ON THE MEASURE OF VALUE 
fore the measure proposed cannot be used. 1 
may find, it is true, the prices of labour, corn, 
and cloth : I then may proceed to calculate the 
value of a yard of cloth and a bushel of corn 
in labour; and their separate relations to labour 
will show their relation to each other: but 
this I have already learned from their prices or 
separate relations to money. Their value in 
labour, therefore, is perfectly superfluous towards 
ascertaining their mutual relation, consequently 
labour in this case is perfectly useless as a mea- 
sure of value. 
The way in which Mr. Malthus attempts to 
establish the invariable value of labour is re- 
markable enough, and his table, drawn up with 
that view, is certainly one of the most curious 
productions in the whole range of political 
economy *. 
In the first column he supposes certain 
quantities of corn to be produced by ten men, 
* As the subsequent remarks could scarcely be under- 
stood without a reference to this table, a copy of it is pre- 
sented to the reader at the end of the present chapter.