78 



IV. G. Langworthy Taylor 



As to con- 

 sumer's rent; 

 that is not a 

 question of 

 quantity; but 

 value and sale 

 are essentially 

 questions of 

 quantity. 



And as to 



selling goods 

 in a lump — 

 no amount of 

 sociological 

 anthropo- 

 morphism could 

 possibly make 

 us imagine 

 such a thing! 



adduced, the whole quantity becomes of itself the marginal dose, 

 and hence the total utility becomes the marginal utility. No 

 difiference is left between the total and marginal utility. They 

 are identified. But confusing illustrations do not destroy a prin- 

 ciple. And if it were possible to imagine anybody selling the 

 whole of the present goods of the world in return for the whole 

 of those expected to be produced at a future time, it would make 

 little difference whether he desired to receive back again the 

 total utility of present goods or not. He would, from the nature 

 of the case, be constrained to estimate equal returns from mar- 

 ginal utility, precisely as if he were buying peaches in a market. 

 The marginal theory, in its operation, depends partly upon the 

 extent to which the article brought into the market for sale is 

 subdivided. If it is not capable of subdivision, then there is no 

 such thing as total utility, as distinguished from marginal. To 

 offer a case of non-subdivision as a refutation of the marginal 

 theory is inconclusive. 



The second argument is that the passage of goods from the 

 market into consumption raises their " value " enormously. This 

 loose use of the term " value " is decidedly misleading. Value 

 is a very distinct thing from utility ; it is a technical conception, 

 an estimate based upon the quantity of an article that is supplied, 

 or supposed to be available. Total utility, on the other hand, is 

 quite unmodified by additional supplies, that is to say, ex Jiypo- 

 thesi, "late" doses do not affect the utility of "early" doses. 

 Total utility includes consumer's rent, which is a sum due to 

 the absolute utility of the goods ; it comprises the rent and value 

 of the goods together. It can in no way be influenced by further 

 supply of goods except as they may increase it arbitrarily or 

 adventitiously. Hence, it cannot enter into a trade of any sort; 

 it is not a business or mercantile conception. 



§ 13. Evidently, the brunt of the discussion turns ujxDn the 

 third point, that the principle of deferred payments depends 

 upon the valuing of society's stock of goods as a whole. If it is 

 true that society itself, in this way, exchanges the whole of 

 present for the whole of future goods, it must do so as a trader, 

 upon marginal principles : but it does not. The question is not 



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