OF VALUE.

211

latter cannot, with any propriety, be said to be
the sole cause of value.
What should we think of an assertion, that
coats are to each other in value as the quantities
 of cloth contained in them, or that their comparative
 value depends exclusively on the quantities
 of cloth required to make them? And if
it were added, that due allowances must be
made for the different qualities of the cloth,
where would be the truth or the utility of the
first mathematically strict position? The proposition
 would, in fact, be reduced to its negative,
 that coats are mot to each other in value
as the quantities of cloth contained in them.
In Mr. Ricardos language on the subject of
the different qualities of labour, there is some
inconsistency and much indistinctness. The
second section of his first chapter is headed,
‘ Labour of different qualities differently rewarded.

 This no cause of variation in the relative
 value of commodities.” By this it is to
be presumed he means, not what the words
really imply, that the different compensation