674 BEPORT— 1889. 



by the austerity of a schoolmaster who, in order to cultivate patience and 

 fortitude in his scholars, should distribute among them certain rewards — it 

 might be toys and sweets — in return for certain amounts of fatigue and pain 

 endured. Thus the cost of procuring a marble might be writing out twenty lines, 

 the cost of a top standing half an hour in the stocks. Supposing exchange to be 

 set up among the members of the youthful population, free competition being 

 assumed, there would theoretically arise an equilibrium of trade in which the 

 value of each article would correspond to its final utility. That is, if a top ex- 

 changed for ten marbles, it might be expected that each boy woidd prize the last 

 top about as highly as the last decade of marbles which he thought fit to purchase. 

 So far final utility might be regarded as the regulating principle. 



But it is equally true that the final <Zjs-utilities of the exchanged articles will 

 be equal. If a top is worth ten marbles, we are entitled to expect such an 

 adjustment of trade that each and every boy would as soon stand in the stocks half 

 an hour as write out tw'o hundred lines — the cost of ten marbles at twenty lines 

 per marble. 



To be sure final utility may be conceived as operating by itself without reference 

 to cost of production, as we tacitly assumed in our first paragraphs. Whereas the 

 converse conception of a traffic in discommodities ' has less place in real life. 



But it is not worth while weighing the two principles against each other, in 

 vacuo, so to spsak, and abstracting the real circumstances by which each is 

 differently modified. As these are introduced the balance will oscillate now in 

 favour of one side, now of the other ; perhaps leaving it ultimately uncertain 

 whether Cost of Production or Final Utility is the more helpful in the explanation 

 of economic phenomena. 



For instance, in our allegory let us introduce the supposition that there is 

 only one variety of cost — say the common labour of writing out verses. If now 

 the authorities fix twenty lines as the cost of a marble, and two hundred as the 

 cost of a top, it is predictable that a top will be worth ten marbles. It is equally 

 true indeed, now as before, that the final utility of a top will be equal to the final 

 utility of ten marbles. But the latter proposition, though equally true, is not 

 equally useful For it does not afford the simple and exact method of prediction 

 which is obtained by the Ricardian view upon the supposition made. But then 

 the supposition that there is only one variety of sacrifice is not always appropriate. 

 And even if it were appropriate, it might not be helpful when we introduce the 

 condition that the cost of procuring each article is not fixed definitely, but varies 

 increasingly or decreasingly with the amount procured. Thus the cost of the first 

 marble given out might be twenty lines ; of the next marble, twenty-one lines; 

 with an equally varying scale for tops. Upon this supposition the two propositions 

 that value corresponds to final utility and also final disutiUty might be equally true, 

 but equally useless for the purpose of prediction. 



Again, it may be that a man is freer to vary the extent of his expenditure than 

 the duration of his work {g). The final disutility experienced by the Seci-etary of 

 this Association during its meetings must be fearful. For it is not open to him to 

 terminate at pleasure his day's work, as if he were employed by the piece. He 

 would not, however, have accepted the office unless the advantages, less by all the 



ein sehnlich begehrtes Spielzeug in Aussicht stellen. So untergeordnet das Vor- 

 kommen solcher Fiille auch sein mag, so wichtig ist es fiir die Theorie festzu- 

 stellen, dass Arbeit und Arbeitsplage doch nicht der einzige Umstand ist, auf den 

 sich .... die WertschatzuDg griinden kann.' — Konrad's Jahrhuch, 1886, p. 43. 



' Suppose our allegorical schoolmaster should discontinue the system of rewards 

 and prefer to cultivate diligence by requiring each boy from time to time to bring up 

 a certain number of lines, written out — whether by himself or another would not be 

 scrutinised — or to be responsible for the cleaning of a window, after the manner of 

 Mr. Squeers's practical method. In the trafBc of discommodities which would be set 

 up on this supposition the (negative) value of each article of exchange would be 

 measured solely by its disutility. However, it must be admitted, I think, that this 

 latter hypothesis is rather more absurd than the former abstraction — with reference 

 to real life at least ; for, as it happens, the traffic in impositions more nearly resembles 

 V hat is said to occur in actual schools. 



