CHAPTER I. ON THE NATURE OF VALUE. VALUE, in its ultimate sense, appears to mean the esteem in which any object is held. It denotes, strictly speaking, an effect produced on the mind; but as we are accustomed in other cases to give a common name to a feeling and to the cause which has excited it, and to blend them together in our thoughts, so in this case we regard value as a quality of external objects. Colour and fragrance, for example, are words which designate both the cause and the effect, both the material quality which produces the feeling in the mind, and the feeling produced. The philosopher, however, is the only one who discerns the distinction, and colour and fragrance are never thought of by the ge nerality of men, but as qualities of external objects. It is precisely in the same way, that value is regarded as a quality belonging to the objects around us. We lose sight of the feeling of the mind, and consider only the power which the object possesses of exciting it, as something external and independent. It is not, however, a simple feeling of esteem, to which the name of value, as used by the political economist, can be given. When we consider objects in themselves, without reference to each other; the emotion of pleasure or satisfaction, with which we regard their utility or beauty, can scarcely take the appellation of value. It is only when objects are considered together as subjects of preference or exchange, that the specific feeling of value can arise. When they are so considered, our esteem for one object, or our wish to possess it, may be equal to, or greater, or less than our esteem for another: it may, for instance, be doubly as great, or, in other words, we would give one of the former for two of the latter. So long as we regarded objects singly, we might feel a great degree of admiration or fondness for them, but we could not express our emotions in any definite manner. When, however, we regard two objects as subjects of choice or exchange, we appear to acquire the power of expressing our feelings with precision, we say, for instance, that one A is, in our estimation, equal to two B. But this is not the expression of positive, but of relative esteem; or, more correctly, of the relation in which A and B stand to each other in our estimation. This relation can be The value of a is denoted only by quantity. expressed by the quantity of в for which it will exchange, and the value of B is in the same way expressed by the quantity of A. Hence the value of A may be termed the power which it possesses or confers of purchasing B, or commanding B in exchange. If, from any consideration, or any number of considerations, men esteem one a as highly as two в, and are willing to exchange the two commodities in that |