OF VALUE.

0

ascertain the mutual relation of two commodities
 which we are desirous of comparing. If we
wish to know whether a and B are equal in
value, we shall in most cases be under the necessity
 of finding the value of each in c¢; and
when we affirm that the value of 4 is equal to
the value of B, we mean only that the ratio of
A to c is equal to the ratio of B to c.
The relative nature of value has not, it appears
 to me, been distinctly seen or uniformly
kept in view by our best writers on the subject.
Mr. Ricardo, for instance, who agrees with
Dr. Smith in his definition of value, asserts, that
if any one commodity could be found, which
now and at all times required precisely the
same quantity of labour to produce it, that
commodity would be of an unvarying value®.

* Principles of Pol. Econ. p. 10, 2d ed. Mr. Ricardo
has withdrawn this sentence in his 3d edition, and presented
 his readers with a new section, in which his doetrines
 are considerably modified. The alterations, however,
 do not, as will be shown immediately, at all affect
the justness of the strictures in the text. And it may also