OF VALUE.

219

him the usual compensation rather than employ
their own capitals in producing a similar result.
 Thus time is really a consideration which
may influence both buyers and sellers; nor is it
necessary here to enter into any metaphysical
inquiry into its nature in order to prove its
effects.

The author of the Elements of Political
Economy has made a curious attempt to resolve
 the effects of time into expenditure of labour.
 « If,” says he, “the wine which is put
in the cellar is increased in value one tenth by
being kept a year, one tenth more of labour may
be correctly considered as having been expended
upon it *.”
Now if any one proposition can be affirmed
without dispute, it is this, that a fact can be
correctly considered as having taken place only
when it really has taken place. In the instance
adduced, no human being, by the terms of the
supposition, has approached the wine, or spent
upon it a moment or a single motion of his
* Elements, p. 97, 2d edition.