LA THEOK.IE DES RICHESSES. 187 



"work has never been translated into English, so far as we are aware, 

 our object will merely be at present to give an outline of the system 

 followed and some of the deduced consequences, paraphrasing, as 

 nearly as may be, the statements of the author himself, and for this 

 purpose we shall let him introduce the "theory of riches," in his own 

 words : 



One cannot conceive that men can live any length of time in con "ection with 

 one another, "without practising the exchange of property or services, but there is 

 a wide step between this natural, and, so to speak, instinctive act, and the abstract 

 idea of a value of exchange which supposes that the objects to which we assign such 

 a value are dans le commerce; that is to say, that we are always able to exchange 

 them for objects of equal value. However, the things to which the condition of 

 commercial relations and civil institutions permit us thus to assign such a value 

 are those which in actual language, we commonly design by the word " riches ;"' 

 and for the purposes of our theory, we shall identify absolutely the meaning of 

 the word " riches" with that presented by the words " exchangeable values" 

 ***** We must distinguish well between the 



abstract idea of " riches" or " exchangeable values," (an idea fixed, and in conse- 

 quence capable of lending itself to rigorous combinations,) from the accessory 

 ideas of utility, rarity, adaptation to the wants or enjoyments of man, which the 

 term " riches" in ordinary language recalls ; these ideas are by nature variable 

 and indeterminate, and no scientific theory can be founded on them. The 

 division of economists into sects, and the war carried on between practical men 

 and theorists, arise in great part only from the ambiguity of the word "riches" 

 in common language, and the confusion which has always prevailed between the 

 fixed, determinate, idea of " exchangeable value," and those of " utility" which 

 every one can estimate in his own fashion, because there is no fixed standard of 

 measure to which reference is possible. ***** 



We must also distinguish between the relative changes of value, which are 

 exhibited by the variation of the relative values, from the absolute changes of 

 value of one or other of the commodities betweeu which exchange has establish- 

 ed relations. ** * In our theory, there erdst only relative values : 

 to seek for others is to contradict the notion itself of " exchangeable value," which 

 implies necessarily tnat of a relation between two terms. Moreover, the change 

 effected in such a relation is a relative effect which can and ought to be explained 

 by absolute changes in the terms of this relation. There are no such things as 

 absolute values, but there are certainly absolute movements of rise and fall in 

 values, and the knowledge of the laws which regulate these constitutes the 

 " theory of riches." 



Having thus precisely defined the object of his researches, Cour- 

 not devotes a chapter or two to the consideration of " money," and 

 establishes some curious relations among the "rates of exchange" of 

 different markets, but we must pass on to where, in search of the 

 principles which shall govern his investigations, he clears his way 

 by an onslaught, too well deserved, on his predecessors in this region. 

 He says : 



