270 
On Value. 
[Sept, 
and in this mode of treating the subject, the nature and causes of value are not 
rendered a whit more intelligible by our stepping back from the product itself, to 
the labour which produced it. 
But when we consider that certain products have a source of value, distinct from 
the labour of which they are the result,— a value depending, as it does, on the 
oviginal constitution of man, and on the nature of those circumstances in which 
he was placed on earth by his Creator, — we are enabled to come to rational 
conclusions regarding the process which men pursue in obtaining and appreciat- 
ing valuable bodies ; and we ultimately reach the limit which determines the point 
beyond which the successful exhibition of labour in obtaining valuable bodies 
becomes impossible. We learn this also, that products the result of no labour 
whatsoever might be possessed of appreciable value ; and that mankind would 
work as intensely to obtain them as they now do, when these products are only 
obtainable in return for the exhibition of some labour. If, for instance, in place 
of some labour being necessary, as at present, for obtaining, from the earth’s 
surface, those items, constituting primary wealth, on which our subsistence 
depends, they had been procurable merely for the appropriation ; still, as popula- 
tion (doomed, as man is, to increase on a surface of limited extent) must come up 
to the means of subsistence, those who lirst possessed themselves of the land, 
and of the means of making this mere appropriation, would presently enjoy the 
power of withholding that food which was in excess to their own consumption ; 
and this they would unquestionably do, unless those who subsequently came into 
being, made it worth their while to bestow this excess upon them. These last 
being, of necessity, willing to make specific sacrifices f or the possession, a suffi- 
ciency of this food, although the product of no labour whatever, would then, as 
now, have become possessed of a determinate value, and would have been ac- 
knowledged to be worth, whatever other products of labour those had to offer, who 
had devoted their utmost exertion to obtain a subsistence, through the means of 
these other products. 
In this case, the whole gross l’eproduction, except the seed, would have gone to 
the formation of rent, in place of the proportion only, which, in the present cir- 
cumstances of the world, goes to the formation of the landlord’s share. No part 
would then, as a portion does at present, have gone to the formation of agricul- 
tural wages and profits ; all would have been rent. 
The mention which has just occurred, of the labour which will inevitably be 
bestowed upon other descriptions of wealth than food, leads us naturally to the 
consideration of the nature of the appreciable value inhering in what may be 
termed the secondary description of wealth. 
After productive arts have made some progress, and the means have been 
secured to man, of obtaining, in abundance, that particular substance, which, 
alone, of all those equally essential to his existence, had been, in a measure, 
withheld ; and after his knowledge of the productive process has become such, that 
he is enabled, by his exertions, to secure, not only sufficient of this substance for 
his own immediate use, while engaged in this important employment, but some 
greater quantity ; then his mind may be turued to the consideration of the means 
by which gratifications of a more secondary nature may be brought within his 
reach. 
As it is not now necessary to his existence, that he should devote unremitting 
labour to the production of food, some leisure is enjoyed. But man, subject to 
minor inconveniences, and imbued with a love of action, esteems this leisuie 
less than the means of guarding himself from the other passing evils, to which 
he is still exposed. He may, besides, have perceived, that, with the aid of some- 
what complex instruments, the great business of agriculture may be vastly faci- 
litated. The leisure which the silent and continuous action of the principle of repro- 
duction, and increase in vegetable products insures, now that this powerful ageut 
is vigorously acting in co-operation with man, is not therefore spent in sloth, but 
is devoted to the provision of houses, clothing, instruments of agriculture, and 
other manufactures. At this ^time these manufactures, although not absolutely 
essential to his existence, still, as being the articles in the want of which his 
greatest present inconveniences originate, will come to be held in esteem when 
obtained, they will certainly be more than equivalent to the sacrifice of ease sunk 
in their acquisition, or they could not be the voluntary product of man’s exertion. 
After the primary description of wealth is secured in abundance, and after it 
has ceased to be the paramount and overwhelming want, to the gratification of 
which all else must yield, man has leisure to look around, and studying the pe- 
