32 ON COMPARING COMMODITIES

lation to other commodities. And why? Because
 the rise in labour would be the same in
all commodities; but if the values of commodities
 are to each other as the values of the labour
 employed in producing them, and if the
labour employed in all commodities rose in
equal proportion, there could not possibly be
any disturbance of the relations existing between
 all commodities before the rise, and of
course A would be of the same value at period
No. 2 as at period No. 1.
The only alteration in this instance would
be, an alteration in the relation of value between
labour and commodities. It would be a simple
 case of a rise in labour, and (proceeding on
the assumption that commodities are determined
in value solely by the quantity of labour) the
whole amount of the proposition is this, that
the values of commodities in relation to each
other are not disturbed by an alteration in their
values in relation to labour; which is only a
particular application of the more general pro-