43 
1831.] Further Observations regarding Value , fyc. 
111.— Further Observations regarding Value ; and on the mode in 
which it is treated by Messrs. Malthus and M’Culloch. 
It has been intimated to me, that an impression is left on the mind, after 
the perusal of the preceding papers of mine, published in the Gleanings , of 
my haying employed the term value, as being synonimous with utility ; and 
I have been referred to Mr. C. Prinsep’s Essay on Money , for arguments to 
show how very erroneous such a supposition is. 
That this charge is not altogether tenable, I think I am justified in saying, 
when I refer to such passages as occur at pages 234 and 235, and in many 
other places; while at the same time I must admit, that in consequence of 
my attention not having been previously attracted, in a particular manner, to 
the consequences of such an admission, a laxity of expression has, in other 
parts, crept in, which ought not to have been permitted, and which affords some 
color to the accusation 1 . 
I am happy that my attention has been thus called to the subject, as it 
has been the means of placing' many of the arguments in new points of view ; 
and because it has brought me acquainted with a work, full of originality, 
which I had not before enjoyed the advantage of perusing*. 
I must now enter into a defence of the mode in which I employ the term 
value, as it appears that I differ in tin's from Mr. Prinsep, and most other writers. 
In Mr. Malthus’s rules for the application of terms in this science, the following 
occurs as the first, namely, “ When we employ terms which are of daily 
occurrence, in the common conversation of educated persons, we should define 
them so as to agree with the sense in which they are understood, in this most 
ordinary use of them. This is the best and most desirable authority for the 
meaning of words.” 
Now, if I should, in ordinary conversation, say, that water, air and sun-shine, 
were valuable to man, I apprehend that all hearers would fully understand what 
I meant thereby ; and that I should be warranted in thus using the term, by 
the ordinary usage of all educated Englishmen. In proof of the above, when 
I turn to the word value, in Crabb's work on English Synonymes, which I may 
quote, as giving the acceptation in which English words are ordinarily used, 
I find it described, as “ a general and indefinite term, applied to what is really 
good, or conceived as such, in a thing;” and by way of example, the following 
quotation occurs. 
1 In such passages as the following, these, and corresponding 1 alterations ought, 
I now find, to be made, at page 274 ; for instance, I have written “ The cause of 
real value, then, in the primary description of wealth, is not, let me repeat, the 
quantity of labour of which it may be the result, but the quantity of labour 
which it must command, will, in practice, be the index by which its existence 
is nown . for food, it lias been seen, might be obtained without labour, and is, 
in act, in practice, obtained with much less labour than it will support and com- 
mand, aud yet it is possessed of value determined by causes quite distinct from 
t le labour bestowed in its production.” Here, for “ the cause of real value in 
the primary description of wealth, is not the quantity of labour of which it is the 
result, I would say “ of labour alone and for the following passages, 4t and 
yet, it is possessed of value determined by causes quite distinct from the labour 
bestowed on its production,” I would substitute, determined by other causes, be- 
sides the labour, &c.” And many similar limitations will, doubtless, elsewhere be 
necessary. 
a Essay on Money , by C. Prinsep, Esq. London. 
