306 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. (Vor. VIII. 
New York to Buffalo from $100 to $10, and when the introduction of the 
Bessemer process of converting pig iron to steel reduced the price from 
$300 per ton to $50 per ton, this reduction of value, instead of indicating 
a reduction in the supply of wealth, indicates the very opposite. Indeed, 
we may conceive of the improvement in the method of production being 
carried so far as to eliminate value altogether. This is illustrated in the 
case of water in Australia, reported by Jevons, where, during a drought, 
the price arose to seventy-five cents per pail-ful. On the return of the 
rains, the price fell to zero. With the increase of drought the value in- 
creased and with the increase of wealth the value disappeared, and some 
writers, tied down by a fallacious definition, actually teach that this elim- 
ination of value means the disappearance of wealth altogether. 
When we say the crop of wheat has multiplied twenty fold and that the 
wealth and value have also increased in the same ratio, this does not mean 
that any one bushel has become more valuable; but that there has been 
a multiplication of valuable units. In the case of the siege, however, 
there was no increase of the number of units; but there was a distinet 
increase in the value of each unit. The first was a value of ‘‘extension’’ 
meaning a multiplication of the units, or an increase in the quantity of 
valuable utilities; while the second is a value of ‘‘intension,’’ meaning, 
not an increase in the number of valuable units, but a higher value for 
each unit. 
Many writers have noticed this increase of ‘‘scarcity’’ or ‘‘intensive’’ 
value as a matter of little importance, as referring only to some scarcity 
of master-pieces in painting or treasured heir-looms. If that were all, it 
would not be worth the time spent in discussing it; but when we notice 
that it relates largely to the value of mines, forests, water-powers, land 
and franchises, and that the value of these natural opportunities is prob- 
ably as great as the value of the products of industry, then we see that it 
is not a matter of merely trifling import. 
As nearly all our legislation, whether relating to the rights of property, 
the distribution of wealth, or the imposition of taxation, is based on 
the assumption that wealth and value are one and the same, and that 
values are wholly of one kind, we may then see that the correct interpreta- 
tion of this question is one of the most important, for the proper govern- 
ment of humanity, the harmonious relations of society, and the success 
of our civilization. 
This difference of values, the one concurring with an increase in wealth, 
the other concurring with the diminution of wealth, has puzzled more 
