lotka: objective standard of value 447 



ECONOMICS.— A7i objective standard of value derived frdm the 

 principle of evolution, — //. Alfred J. Lotka. Communi- 

 cated by G. K. Burgess.^ 



The question naturally arises, whether it is in any way possible 

 to obtain a numerical estimate of the order of magnitude of the 



quantity ^, and thus to establish a connection between our 



theoretical considerations and practical, concrete economic data. 

 The most obvious way to seek an answer to this question would, 



of course, be actually to determine ~— for at least one commodity. 



Unfortunately the difficulties in the way of carrying out this plan 

 are equally obvious. We are therefore forced to have recourse to 

 indirect methods. This is not without its compensations. For, 

 quite apart from its bearing upon the theory of value, the physical 



dr 

 quantity r-— is of considerable interest, and, since we can enter- 



tain but little hope of effecting its direct measurement in the near 

 future, the discovery of any method, however rough, for gauging 

 indirectly at least its order of magnitude, represents a distinct 

 gain. 



The basis for such an indirect determination is furnished us by 

 the fact that, by definition, an individual with a perfect sense of 

 values would gauge all commodities at their "true" values — or, 

 as expressed by equations (12), (13), (18), (19) 



^ = v, (23) 



Had we such an individual at our disposal, we could, by simply 

 questioning him, obtain through (22) a measure of the "true" 

 values in exchange of all commodities, and thus, all but for a 



constant factor, a measure of ;^ — for all commodities. 



om 



In actual fact we cannot do this, but we can question an actual 



representative individual, or, what amounts to the same thing, 



we can ascertain the prices of goods upon the actual market, and 



iPart I of this paper appeared in the August issue cf this Journal, pp. 409-418. 



