88 ON COMPARING COMMODITIES

necessity deny by implication, that the relations
 of value between a and B are governed
by the value of the labour which severally produces
 them.” Again, “so far are the two formule
 from presenting merely two different expressions
 of the same law, that the very best
way of expressing negatively Mr. Ricardo’s
law (viz. A is to B in value as the quantities of
the producing labour) would be to say, a is not
to B in value as the values of the producing labour
 *.”

Let us examine the reasoning employed to
support this extraordinary assertion. It is too
long to be introduced here, but it amounts to
this, that when the producing labour is increased
 in quantity, the commodity produced
is increased in value; but when the producing
labour is increased in value, the value of the
commodity produced remains unaltered; and
therefore the values of commodities are not to
each other as the values of the producing la-London

 Magazine for April, p. 348.