On the Constant Connection 
[Oct. 
304 
tity of food, as a standard of value, would be found to have fallen one fourth. 
But what I contended for was, that the value of the quantity which was actually 
necessary for the support of a man was immutable ; we now find that, in practice, 
what is virtually necessary for his support, may undergo change. Still, however, 
I maintain, that at any given time, (passing changes being disregarded,) what 
is, in practice, found to be requisite to man’s support must enjoy a fixed value, 
whether it be 10 or 20 measures. But admitting that when this quantity experiences 
increase or diminution (as in the case already given), the value of specific quanti- 
ties will be altered, is not receding from my former position ; that, given the quan- 
tity necessary for the support of a man, that quantity, whatever its amount, 
must be of a determinate value. 
It is very true then in practice, as we are told by Lord Lauderdale, and many 
other writers, that there is nothing which possesses a real, intrinsic, or invariable 
value ; which may, in all cases whatsoever, be referred to as a standard : even deter- 
minate quantities of food must, in practice, we see, be susceptible of change in po- 
sitive value; but this, it must be remarked, is consequent, not on the variability 
of value, in that which supports a man, but on the accidental circumstance of 
man’s wants, coming in process of time to include other necessaries than mere 
food. If food alone, at all times, and under all circumstances, sufficed to satisfy k the 
wants of man, then its value must be invariable ; and for reasons too which Lord 
Lauderdale himself points out ; “ abundance,” he says, “ of the necessaries of life 
has a direct tendency to increase population, and by this means to restore the 
proportion betwixt the demand and the quantity of the increased commodities ; 
thus maintaining their value, notwithstanding their abundance.” 
From the whole of the above considerations it will appear, that Mr. Ricardo is 
as far from the truth, in maintaining, that although a million of men may, after 
the introduction of improvements in production, make double, or ti’eble the amount 
of riches ; they will not thereby have made any increase of value ; as Lord Lau- 
derdale is where, in another part of his work, he says, that value mightbe increas- 
ed by creating a scarcity. Both leave out of consideration that the existence of 
value depends on the existence of appreciators of value ; that with the real increase 
of wealth, these also must increase; and that with diminution of wealth these 
must be diminished also. 
Scarcity proceeding from difficulty of production, taken by itself, is not a cause 
of high value, neither is abundance a cause of the reverse ; for if food were so 
scarce, and so hard to be raised, that the labour required in the acquisition of 
what would support a man, were beyond what the power of man could bestow, it 
would be utterly without value ; and this simply, because there could not possibly 
be in existence any men to make an appreciation of its value : and if it were, on 
the other hand, so abundant, that every foot of the habitable globe were appro- 
priated to its growth, every pound of it would, notwithstanding this vast aug- 
mentation of quantity, be possessed of a specific value ; because, in proportion to 
its quantity, so would be the number of persons ready to devote their utmost ex- 
ertions to obtain a sufficiency to meet their wants, and duly to appreciate its va- 
lue when obtained. All discussions, therefore, of value, abstracted from the consi- 
deration of the moral agents who are to make appreciations of value, must lead to 
false conclusions. 
Value abstracted from the sentiments of men cannot be known ; and the only 
approximation to a standard of value with which we can be practically acquainted, 
is a specific quantity of that description of wealth which is held in the same es- 
teem by mankind, in all situations wherein society is not under the immediate in- 
fluence of some passing change ; in other words, due allowance being made for 
differences in prevailing habits, in the lower orders of different countries, and of 
different times, the quantity of food which must be raised, before one man can ob- 
tain a sufficiency for the supply of his wants, is that which approaches most nearly 
to a standard of valuation. 
If the above reasonings be true, it does not appear that Adam Smith was much 
in error, in estimating wealth, and value indifferently, by the labour which a per- 
son has at command, or by the command he holds over the comforts, necessaries, 
and enjoyments of life ; for it has been shewn, that, although at different periods, 
a specific quantity of labour may produce different quantities of these latter; it 
has also been shewn, that the same facility which exists for producing items of 
wealth, extends, nearly as much, towards the production of value also ; the princi- 
ple requiring modification, when applied to societies in which other articles, besides 
food, have come to be counted as essentially necessary to human support. 
