ECONOMIC VALUE. 
171 
exchange. Exchangeable articles were to be classed under three 
heads — articles absolutely limited in quantity; articles that could 
be increased in quantity, but the increased production of which 
would be at a greater proportionate cost; articles that could be 
increased without any practical limit, and without additional cost. 
Articles, however, also partook of the conditions of the classes to 
which they did not primarily belong. Effective demand — the 
ability as well as the desire to purchase — governed the greatest 
value of an article. The coincidence between demand and supply 
might take place at any point between the limit of demand and 
the limit of supply. The natural value of articles of the first 
class — which included such things as pictures of old masters — was 
that at which the greatest number could be supplied when the 
demand had been foreseen. Agricultural and mining products came 
within the second class. Increased production in agriculture could 
only be attained by taking in inferior land, or by expending more 
labour and capital upon the land already in hand. Manufactured 
commodities were the principal example of the last class. So far 
as they were dependent upon raw materials they were subject to 
the laws of the second class. The value of the material, however, 
was small in comparison to that of the manufactured goods. The 
natural value of articles of the third class was that of the cost of 
production of the least expensively produced articles of the same 
description. Oscillations of price around the natural value oc- 
curred in the third class in consequence of the fluctuation of the 
demand. The variations in the price of the second class depended, 
on the contrary, upon fluctuations in the supply. Political economy 
was the science of wealth. The term social science was very com- 
monly misapplied. Whatever took the form of a plan, and aimed at 
definite practical ends, was not really science. Political economy 
was, however, a science in the sense in which astronomy was a 
science. In considering the subject men should be taken as they 
were, which would prevent people from carrying political economy 
beyond its true sphere. It had nothing to do with morality and 
religion, but took account of all moral dispositions, and resulted 
from the fact that whatever might be men's aims in life they all 
had some needs and desires in common, and could assist each other 
to some extent. A real increase of moral and intellectual culture 
benefited society by the increased value in use it gave to objects 
consistent with it, and consequently the increased support it brought 
