OF LABOUR.

51

avoidsa difficulty, which, ona first view, threatens
to encumber his doctrine, that value depends
on the quantity of labour employed in production,
 If this principle is rigidly adhered to, it
follows, that the value of labour depends on
the quantity of labour employed in producing
it—which is evidently absurd. By a dexterous
 turn, therefore, Mr. Ricardo makes the
value of labour depend on the quantity of labour
 required to produce wages, or, to give
him the benefit of his own language, he maintains,
 that the value of labour is fo be estimated
by the quantity of labour required to produce
Wages, by which he means, the quantity of labour
 required to produce the money or commodities
 given to the labourer. This is similar to
saying, that the value of cloth is to be estimated,
 not by the quantity of labour bestowed
on its production, but by the quantity of labour
bestowed on the production of the silver, for
which the cloth is exchanged.
From the preceding observations it appears,