NOMINAL VALUE. 
41 
thing might at once become more valuable, by 
requiring at once more labour for its production, 
a position utterly at variance with the truth, that 
value denotes the relation in which commodi- 
ties stand to each other as articles of exchange. 
Real value, in a word, is on this theory con- 
sidered as being the independent result of la- 
bour; and consequently, if under any circum- 
stances the quantity of labour is increased, the 
real value is increased. Hence the paradox, 
“ that it is possible for A continually to in- 
crease in value —in rea! value observe — and 
yet command a continually decreasing quantity 
of B*:” and this although they were the only 
commodities in existence. For it must not be 
supposed that the author means, that A might in- 
crease in value in relation to a third commodity 
C, while it commanded a decreasing quantity of 
B—a proposition which is too self-evident to 
be insisted on; but he means that a might in- 
* Templars’ Dialogues, in London Magazine for May, 
1824, p. 551.