1830.3 
On Value. 
273 
numbers, as shall carry cultivation to that point, at which the largest net repro- 
duction may he realized, wherewith to enable the sovereign to pay the only 
other classes existing in the society, the army, and the retainers of the court. 
In both cases the value of the primary wealth is equal ; because it equally com- 
mands the labour of the vast majority, namely, the po-)r : and it is possible to con- 
ceive, particularly in the more mild and fertile regions of Asia, that, in both 
cases, the quantity of primary wealth realized may be pretty nearly the same. 
But the full cultivation of the soil would, in the latter case, be the effect of the ne- 
cessities of the poor and needy cultivators; and probably of coercion too; and 
not, as in the former, the effect of a voluntary impulse, created by the prospect of 
that enjoyment which secondary wealth is calculated to afford. 
What I have here been endeavouring to illustrate is, that the value of primary 
wealth is dependent on nothing but the inevitable demand which must exist, in all 
ordinary circumstances, for the quantity of food procurable; and that, however the 
connexion of the two, after society has been constituted on the more complex sys- 
tem, may render temporary losses of value inevitable ; there still are circumstances, 
in which the value of primary wealth may exist, independently of the existence of 
secondary wealth : — while, on the other hand, the value of secondary wealth could, 
manifestly, never exist, except in subordination to the existence of primary wealth ; 
and that even its total annihilation might be effected, without necessarily produc- 
ing any permanent effect on the value of primary wealth. 
Provided then, the products, constituting the secondary description of wealth, be 
accurately accommodated to the wants of those in whose power it is to obtain 
wealth of the primary description ; the value inhering in those articles, when in 
the market, must be of a quality as positive, as that which inheres in primary 
wealth : we may, therefore, reason regarding this description of value as existing in 
secondary wealth, in all ordinary circumstances of supply ; with as much justice, 
as we may reason upon its existence in primary wealth. 
All products constituting secondary wealth are really valuable, as they are, in 
practice convertible, at will, into food, the article regarding which there can be no 
change in the opinions of men. In practice then, a knowledge of the labour any 
product has cost, to whatever class of production it belongs, leads us to a know- 
ledge of its value, through the medium of that which is invariable 1 in its value; 
and it is entirely owing to the chain of dependencies, ending where it does, in the 
sentiments which must be entertained by man, regarding these first of valuable 
existences, that value could be known; for had there been no necessity for each 
person’s possessing a specific quantity of any one product, there could have been 
nothing in existence regarding which all men were agreed. A product might 
have cost 10 men’s labour for a year ; or 10,000 men’s labour for 10 years ; yet as 
the esteem in which it would ultimately be held, would be uncertain— as all value 
would, then, depend upon whim and caprice, no two persons agreeing, with re- 
gard to the utility or the necessity for the possession of any thing whatever ; the 
knowledge that such and such a quantity of labour had been bestowed upon cer- 
tain products would have been no guide to a knowledge of its value, or to a 
knowledge of what the mass of mankind would give to possess it. 
What would, in this case, be true of one product, would be true of all products * 
and nothing could, in consequence, be certain of finding a market. There would 
exist no steady grounds of inference and calculation ; each person, wishing for a 
wrought product, would be under the necessity of making it for himself; and pro- 
duction would never, therefore, rise beyond that original state, in which it exists 
amoDgst the rudest savages. 
But when the products brought to market, must, if they are really in demand, 
be ultimately exchangeable for one thing, regarding which all men are agreed in 
opinion, the case is altered ; and determinate valuation may proceed. 
By this last link in the chain of dependencies, connecting the cost of a product, 
with the sentiments which are entei’tained regarding it, the positive value, or the 
relation of the product to man himself, is made known ; and as the labour, which 
will command a sufficiency of food in the market, is fixed, and is consequently 
1 By the invariability of the value inhering in primary wealth, as used throughout 
the Essay, I do not mean that food may not be affected by passing events; such as 
changes in the seasons, or changes in the circumstances of society ; but I mean that 
there is a point to which it must continually return, after the influence of passing 
changes shall have ceased to be felt: just as 1 would say, that a pendulum invariably 
settles in the vertical position, whenever the power which maintained its motion ceases 
to act. 
