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give it the attribute of legal tender. We must, therefore, 
select some commodity which is the product of labour as 
the concrete standard. But if labour is the real standard, 
then the commodity which we select as legal tender currency 
must, if it is to be a perfect standard, be always strictly 
representative quantitatively of the real standard — labour. 
It must always bear the same relation to commodities in 
general which labour itself bears to those commodities. It 
must be free from purely arbitrary influences. 
Now, what is the law which tends to preserve a steady 
relation in terms of labour, or in other words in value, 
between all commodities producible by labour ? It is that 
a given quantity of labour will always endeavour to obtain 
in exchange the maximum quantity of the products of 
labour. Hence if a given commodity is produced in excess, 
and its exchangeable labour value declines, the labour 
employed in its production will seek some more remunerative 
channel of activity until the equilibrium is restored. And 
conversely, if the production of a given commodity is 
deficient, and its value in terms of other commodities is 
increased, labour will be diverted to that production until 
the production is increased sufliciently to bring down the 
value of the quantity of labour employed therein to the 
average. It is obvious, however, that in order that this law 
may operate, the production must be susceptible of increase 
or diminution at will, according to the reward obtainable. 
So far as over-production, or depreciation of exchangeable 
value in terms of commodities generally, is concerned, 
the check is automatic, because it merely involves the 
cessation of labour, and labour will always tend to cease 
(in accordance with the law already stated) in proportion 
as it becomes less remunerative than other labour against 
which it is exchanged. Herein we have the final reply 
to what is known as the “wheelbarrow argument” in 
