80 ON COMPARING COMMODITIES

values of the producing labour; for the contrary
would necessarily imply, that the two commodities
 A and B might be equal in value,
although the value of the labour employed in
one was greater or less than the value of the
labour employed in the other; or that A and B
might be unequal in value, if the labour employed
 in each was equal in value. But this
difference in the value of two commodities,
which were produced by labour of equal value,
would be inconsistent with the acknowledged
equality of profits, which Mr. Ricardo maintains
 in common with other writers *.
It is probable, therefore, that this was not
Mr. Ricardo’s meaning, but that he unconsciously
 confounded this proposition with another;
 and really intended to say, that the value
of A at two different periods, No. 1 and 2, was

* In this chapter we are assuming, for the sake of argument,
 the truth of the doctrine, that commodities are to
each other in value, as the quantities of labour respectively
employed in their production. Tt will form a subject of
examination hereafter.