OF VALUE.

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position, not being that of equality, suppose
to be as 2 in 1600 to 1 in 1800, or, in other
words, suppose that silver in 1800 is produced
by half the labour required in 1600.
With these data it is obvious, that we could
deduce the ratio of labour employed in the
production of cloth at these periods, with as
much accuracy as we could under the conditions
 of the first case. If in 1600 the cloth
was 12s. per yard, and in 1800 only 6s., the
producing labour of silver at the latter period
being only half of what it was at the former
period, then the producing labour of cloth
would have been reduced te a quarter of its
former quantity. For in 1600 a yard of cloth
being 12s. in value, the yard of cloth and the
12s. took equal quantities of labour to produce
them : but in 1800 the producing labour of 12s.
is by the supposition reduced one half, and
consequently the quantity of labour in 6s. must
be a quarter of the quantity which had been
necessary to produce 12s. in 1600. Now as 6s.
in 1800 exchange for a yard of cloth, the pro-