The herald., 1895-06-29

can never be certain, because to be GER
tain it must at all times and in all places
be of the same value; therefore nothing
Can have intrinsic value. But things
have an intrinsic value in themselves,
which in all places have the same virtue.
as the loadstone to attract iron and the
several qualities that belong to herbs and
drugs. But these things though they
may have great virtue, may be of small
value or no price according to the place
where they are plenty or scarce. Things
have no value in themselves. 1t is opin
ion and fashion which brings them into
use and gives them value. The express
persons are apt to overlook its incongru-
ity of idea: but if we use words of SINH
lar import whose meanings have not been
so corrupted the absurdity will at once
be apparent. Thus, who ever heard of
intrinsic distance or intrinsic ratio? The
absurdity of these phrases is apparent at
once. But they are not more absurd than
intrinsic value"
The International cyclopeda, Vol. Is,
page SO. defines value as follows:
''Value in political economy is one of
those terms that demands attention more
vague and fallacious uses than for any
attempt to give it strict scientific
definition. 1t has a distinct meaning
only when it is used as ''value III ex-
change" and between things coexisting
in time and place. Two articles each of
which will bring s25 in Boston are equiv
alent in value there. Cost has nothing
to do with value. If q bale of silk cost
$500, and if from disease of the silk worm.
or for any other. reason, the price of the
comm odty rises so that it will bring $3.50,
that is its value; so also if there be fall
in the price so that it will only bring
$375. then that is its value"
l iS an "a
any year, so as to largely increase the
supply, we know that the value of wheat
will fall in the market. Why? The wheat
has the same utility as that produced the
previous year. All its inherent or intrin-
sic properties are the same. A bushel of
it will make as many loaves of bread and
will go as far in satisfying hunger; and
yet it will only bring one-half or two
thirds as much III the market. Why this
difference in value? The holders of wheat
must compete with each other to make
sales at any price; and consequently the
value will decline. On the other hand
if there had been but half crop the pur-
chasers of wheat must compete with each
other in order to obtain the needed sup
ply and the value of wheat will advance.
Thus you see the law OF supply and
demand controls the price; the inherent
properties Of the wheat have nothing
! to do with it.
Mr.. Jevons, in his work on political
economy, says: 81 must in the first
place point out the thoroughly ambiguous
and unscientific character OF the term
value. Now, if there is any fact certain
about value, it is that it means not an
! object at all, but a circumstance OF an OBJ
ject. Value implies, in fact, relation ;
but if so, it cannot possibly be some
other thing. A student of economics has
no hope of ever being clear and correct in
his ideas of science if he thinks of value
as at all thing or an object. Persons
are thus led to speak of such nonentity
as intrinsic value. There are doubtless
qualities inherent in such a substance as
gold or iron which influence it's value:
| but the word value, SO far as it can be
| correctly used. merely expresses the Cir
cumstanco of its exchanging in a certain
ratio for some other substance. Value
expresses nothing if not ratio. and the
term should not be used in any other
sense. To speak of the value Of an ounce
of gold is as absurd as to speak Of the
ratio Of the number seventeen. What is
the ratio of the number seventeen? The
! question admits of no answer, for there
| must be another number named in order
| to make a ratio; and the ratio will differ
according to the number suggested
In another work published by Jevons,
entitled Money and the Mechanism of
] Exchange, he says: utility and value
i are not intrinsic in a substance, for, ii
| they were, additional quantities of the
same substance would always be desired,
however much we previously possessed.