Effect of Duties on Ln])orts upon the Value of Oold. 



79 



value of anything; that being determined, almost always, by 

 the other element of its existence, namely, resistance^ or the 

 difficulty to be overcome in obtaining it. The brilliant Bas- 

 tiat defines value as " accumulated serviced This is much like 

 calling a snow-drift accumulated wind, and is quite too great 

 a stretch of poetic license to answer the severe demands of 

 scientific accuracy. A large class, including some able writers 

 on political economy, regard value and wealth as synonymous 

 and convertible terms. But ivealth consists of the aggregate 

 of exchangeable objects, while value is simply the ratio in 

 which those objects exchange, or are exchangeable for each 

 other, and is not necessarily dependent upon their aggregate 

 quantity. Let us bear in mind, then, as we proceed, that 

 value is the ratio of exchange between different objects, money in- 

 cluded. 



To avoid unnecessary complications we w^ill, for the present, 

 entirely ignore the existence of paper currency and deal only 

 with the money of commerce, consisting chiefly of gold. 

 Under the natural conditions of commerce — free trade — each 

 country wnll retain, with slight oscillations, just that propor- 

 tion of gold which will hold the average prices of its import- 

 ables and exportables aggregated, at very nearly a uniform 

 level throughout the commercial world. If any one country 

 has even a slight excess over this proportion, prices there will 

 become relatively cheaper than domestic products, and more 

 goods will be imported than its exports of goods will pay for, 

 and the balance will be paid in gold, until, through the con- 

 traction of the gold volume thus effected, prices of domestic 

 products are again brought down to the common level in other 

 countries, and then the efflux of gold will cease. If the 

 country has hss than this proportion, domestic prices will fall 

 and foreign goods will become relatively dearer than domestic 

 goods, and the demand for the former will decline until the 

 imports (other than gold) will no longer balance the exports 

 and the balance will be brought home in gold until the vol- 



