46

POLITICAL  ECONOMY

of  action  against  one  another.  It  would
seem  to  imply  the  conception  of  a  person
simply  as  an  economic  registering  machine
which  automatically  reacts.  This  would  be
an  altogether  incorrect  conception.  In  the
first  place  the  individual  does  not  merely
register  utilities  objectively  presented  to  him  ;
on  the  contrary  he  creates  the  utilities  of
which  he  takes  account.  It  is  his  disposition
and  his  purpose  in  life  which  determine  what
things  shall  have  much  value  to  him  and
what  things  little  value.  In  the  second  place
the  registration  of  utilities,  which  are  to  be
regarded  as  the  product  of  a  person’s  character
and  his  contact  with  external  nature,  takes
place  to  a  large  extent  implicitly.  Of  much  of
our  balancing  of  utilities  we  are  unconscious  ;
the  operation  only  becomes  a  deliberate  one
when  the  expenditure  of  comparatively  large
sums  is  involved.  And  in  the  third  place  this
qualification  of  our  doctrine  must  be  admitted,
that,  as  regards  things  which  are  very  cheap  in
relation  to  our  incomes,  no  doubt  we  make
no  attempt  to  bring  their  marginal  utilities
into  relation  with  the  marginal  utilities  of
more  expensive  things.
We  must  always  remember,  not  only  that
an  individual’s  demands  are  the  outcome  of
his  upbringing  and  his  surroundings  as  well