OF VALVE,

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tion; we do notadvance a step beyond the information
 given ; there isno inference corresponding
to that which is drawn in the other case. We cannot
 deduce the relation of value, between corn at
the first and corn at the second period, because
no such relation exists, nor consequently can
we ascertain their comparative power over
other commodities. If we made the attempt,
it would be in fact endeavouring to infer the
quantities of corn which exchanged for each
other at two different points of time, a thing
obviously absurd. And further, money would
not be here discharging a particular function
any more than the other commodity. We
should have the value of corn in money, and
the value of money in corn, but one would be
no more a measure or medium of comparison
than the other.
These observations are enough to show, that
the only use of a measure of value, in the
sense of a medium of comparison, is between
commodities existing at the same time; and
consequently the proposition, that money is not