154 ON METHODS OF

aggregate value as the former produce, while
each individual commodity would have fallen
fifty per cent. in value. Itis obvious, however,
that the truth of this and similar positions entirely
 depends on the medium in which we estimate
 value. Suppose, for the sake of simplification,
 that the country had no foreign commerce,
 and produced its own money: then if
all commodities (money of course included) were
produced in double quantity, the effect would
be, that while the value of the aggregate would
be doubled, the value of each individual commodity
 would remain as before. For by the
value of an individual commodity we mean its
power of commanding other things in exchange.
If a pair of stockings were formerly worth a
shilling, it would still be worth a shilling.
Every commodity would in the same way continue
 to be exchanged in the same quantity
against every other commodity. So far as to
the value of individual commodities. With
regard to the aggregate, value being in strict
propriety a relation existing amongst the several
parts, it cannot be predicated of the whole, ex-