LITERARY NOTICES. 



701 



ed, he terms the final degree, and it is on 

 this that the ratio of exchange depends. 

 He finds the explanation of the fact that 

 such a very useful commodity as water has 

 little or no power in exchange in the cir- 

 cumstance that its final degree of utility is 

 ordinarily very small. When water becomes 

 i-arce the higher degrees of utility are ap- 

 proached, and, if the scarcity is prolonged, 

 it may acquire a high purchasing power. 

 Geometrically, total utility would correspond 

 with the area inclosed between a curve and 

 its lines of reference, and the degree of util- 

 ity at any point with the ordinate of the 

 curve at that point. His conception of 

 utility corresponds closely with that as ex- 

 pressed in ordinary language, the total util- 

 ity being the entire usefulness of any com- 

 modity, the degree of utility the esteem or 

 urgency of desire, and the ratio of exchange 

 the purchasing power. 



As viewed by Professor Jevons, the prob- 

 lem of exchange is properly a dynamic 

 one. Commodities are being continuously 

 manufactured, exchanged, and consumed. 

 The solution of the problem, therefore, in- 

 volves determining not only the conditions 

 of equilibrium at which exchange would 

 cease, but the rate at which it would go on 

 before equilibrium was established. The 

 statical problem — the obtaining of the con- 

 ditions of equilibrium — is only attempted in 

 the present work. He considers that the 

 parties to the exchange are possessed of 

 certain fixed quantities of commodity which 

 they keep exchanging until the point is 

 reached when they are satisfied, and have 

 no further desire to part with or acquire 

 any more. His analysis brings him to the 

 conclusion that "the ratio of exchange of 

 any two commodities will be the reciprocal 

 of the ratio of the final degrees of utility of 

 the quantities available for consumption af- 

 ter the exchange is completed." 



The usual treatment of labor by econo- 

 mists Professor Jevons regards as singular- 

 ly perverted. The science starts with labor, 

 and how to use this labor to the greatest 

 advantage is the very problem with which 

 it deals. But economists generally do not 

 proceed far before they turn about and con- 

 sider labor as a commodity which capitalists 

 buy up. " Labor becomes itself the object," 

 he says, "of the laws of supply and de- 



mand, instead of those laws acting in the 

 distribution of the products of labor." His 

 conclusion is that " the wages of a working- 

 man are ultimately coincident with what he 

 produces, after the deduction of rent, taxes, 

 interest, and the interest of capital." Ac- 

 cording to his analysis, when in any case of 

 production the labor is distributed, the ratio 

 of the final degrees of utility of the products 

 equals the ratio of the productiveness of the 

 labor concerned in each product. He thus 

 arrives at the result that the ratio of ex- 

 change is ultimately determined by the cost 

 of production, through the eflEect which this 

 has in determining the final degrees of util- 

 ity of the commodities. The conclusions of 

 the work, on the subject of exchange, Pro- 

 fessor Jevons sums up as follows : " Quan- 

 tities of commodity exchanged vary directly 

 as the quantities produced by the same la- 

 bor, and inversely as their values, prices, 

 costs of production, and final degrees of 

 utility." 



Professor Jevons accepts the current de- 

 finition of capital, though he broadens it 

 somewhat, and his analysis of the subject 

 leads him to conclusions closely agreeing 

 with those of Ricardo and the economists 

 who have followed him. 



The doctrine of rent he regards as hav- 

 ing long been in a scientific form. 



Of the value of the theory, both as to 

 what is obtained and as to its possible de- 

 velopment as a comprehensive treatment of 

 economics, it is for economists to decide, 

 but it can be studied with interest and profit 

 by all who desire to know one of the direc- 

 tions in which present economic inquiry is 

 tending. The book is written in the clear 

 manner peculiar to all the work of this au- 

 thor, and can be readily perused by any 

 one having the slightest knowledge of the 

 calculus. 



The Chemistry of Common Life. By 

 James F. W. Johnston. New edition, 

 and brought down to the Present Time 

 by A. H. Chuuch. New York : D. Ap- 

 pleton & Co. 1880. 1 vol., pp. 592. 

 Price, $2. 



A REVISED edition of this favorite work, 

 first issued twenty-five years ago, will be 

 welcomed everywhere. It has ever been 

 the model of a popular scientific work, and 

 has had many imitations — notably, Lewes's 



