118

ON MEASURES

a good measure of the value of commodities at
different periods, is either false or amounts to
nothing. If it means that money is not equally
a good measure of contemporary commodities
at any period, it is directly opposite to the
truth : if it means that it is not a good medium
 of comparison between commodities at
different periods, it asserts its incapability of
performing a function in a case where there is
no function for it to perform.
In applying the principles developed in the
preceding disquisition to the writings of Mr. Ricardo,
 we shall find that he has fallen into the
same errors as his predecessors and contemporaries,
 as well as into others peculiarly his own.
Misled by his radical misconception of the nature
 of value, and particularly by his notions
on the subject of real value, he has opened his
section “ on an invariable measure,” with the
following passage, the errors of which will be
sufficiently apparent to any one who has attended
to the foregoing part of the present chapter.
“ When commodities,” says Mr. Ricardo,