168 ON THE DISTINCTION 
With regard to heterogeneous commodities, 
there are in fact only two conceivable criteria 
of riches: one, the utility of any possessions; 
the other, their value, The first is in the 
highest degree unsteady and indeterminate, and 
altogether inapplicable. Iron, as Mr. Ricardo 
remarks, may be more useful than gold, but 
the possession of a pound of the former metal 
would not constitute a man as rich as that of 
an equal weight of the latter. Value, there- 
fore, is the only criterion of riches which is left 
to us. 
In determining, then, the question whether 
riches could be increased, without an increase 
of value, we must recur to the principles laid 
down in the last chapter. The answer in each 
particular case will depend on the medium of 
estimation. There is one additional remark, 
however, which may be here introduced. In 
the chapter referred to, a case was supposed, 
in which all commodities were produced in 
double quantity by the same labour, with the 
exception of one solitary article, and it was