252 . Mr. Faraday on 



has remained unchanged, which means that the efficiency 

 of the labour employed in their production has not in-- 

 creased, as in the case of all other labour. It also means 

 that there has been no diminution in the cost of production 

 in consequence of the cheapening of every material which 

 enters into that cost, which is an absurdity unless the labour 

 has become correspondingly less efficient. This, of course^ 

 might happen in the case of gold, for instance, through the 

 diminished richness or greater depth of the mines. In any 

 case, it is clear that, either through what John Stuart Mill 

 calls a " natural monopoly," or through an artificial 

 monopoly, the exchangeable value of the monetary 

 ions having increased to exactly the extent of the fall 

 of prices, this value has received an addition which may 

 or may not be an unearned increment in the case of 

 the producer, but is certainly an unearned increment in the 

 case of all creditors. They are then no longer perfect 

 monetary ions. Sir Thomas Farrer's notion of a standard 

 money which can remain stationary, while all other things 

 are increasing in quantity, and that, therefore, it is the 

 "other things" which have depreciated, and not the standard 

 which has appreciated, is illusory. The medium of pay- 

 ment in such a case has been sheltered from the influences, 

 affecting all other commodities, and it has received an 

 arbitrary addition to its exchanging power. It ought to be 

 considered, therefore, as great an anomaly in economics 

 as an electrolytical ion with a variable exchanging power 

 would be in physics. 



I do not go so far as to suggest that any commodity can 

 be named which will be absolutely unchangeable in value 

 relation to other things. Still there are commodities which,, 

 as monetary ions^ would, on the average, bear a steady relation 

 to most other commodities. Adam Smith perceived this 

 when he said that the exchangeable value of corn-rents would 

 be likely to be more steady from century to century, though 



