Whoever directly satisfies his wants with the produce of his own labour, creates, indeed, use-values, but not commodities. The property which the magnet possesses of attracting iron, became of use only after by means of that property the polarity of the magnet had been discovered. The natural worth of anything consists in its fitness to supply the necessities, or serve the conveniencies of human life. This is quite in accordance with the spirit of a language that likes to use a Teutonic word for the actual thing, and a Romance word for its reflexion. In bourgeois societies the economic fictio juris prevails, that every one, as a buyer, possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of commodities.
Nothing can have an intrinsick value.
The value of a thing Is just as much as it will bring. N. Barbon, l.c., p. 7. 9. This remarkable anonymous work written in the last century, bears no date. It is clear, however, from internal evidence that it appeared in the reign of George II, about 1739 or 1740.