OF VALUE. 
295 
back as we will? I answer, perhaps monopoly, 
perhaps the quantity of labour, or perhaps the 
value of labour; or possibly some combination 
of these. 
Let us take, for example, a piece of linen. 
The value of this has been proximately deter- 
mined by the capital expended in its manufac- 
ture. The capital expended consisted, we will 
suppose, of food for the workmen and flax as 
the material. We have then to inquire what 
has caused the value of the food and the flax; 
and we might find it to be owing to the labour 
expended in raising it, or more probably to a 
monopoly possessed by the owners of land. In 
the former case it may be urged, the value of 
the capital is ultimately resolvable into the 
quantity of producing labour; and not the less 
so in the latter, since the value of the produce 
grown on superior soils is determined by the 
value of that grown on lands not coming under 
any description of monopoly, or in other words 
paying no rent. But it does not follow in the 
first case, that the value of the produce should