Accordingly some form of combination must be devised which will suppress profit, together with “all that gives rise to that inordinate desire for buying in the cheapest market and selling in the dearest.” But the instrument of profit is gold or money. Profits are always realised in the form of money.[521] Gold is an intermediary in every act of exchange, and its intervention goes a long way towards explaining the anomaly of selling a commodity for more than cost price. The objective, then, must be money, and it must be replaced by labour notes, which will supply us with a measure of value altogether superior to money. Seeing that labour is the cause and substance of value, it is only natural that it should afford us the best means of measuring value. It is quite obvious that ample homage is paid to the Ricardian theory of value, but conclusions both novel and unproved are drawn from it. The producer who wishes to dispose of his produce will be given labour notes in proportion to the number of hours which he has worked. In the same way the consumer who wishes to buy that product will be called upon to pay an equivalent number of labour notes, and so profit will be eliminated. The condemnation of money was not new, but what was original was the discovery that labour notes could supply the place of money, a discovery which Owen considered “more valuable than all the mines of Mexico and Peru.” It has truly been a wonderful mine, and has been freely exploited by almost every socialist. But it hardly squares with Owen’s communistic ideal, which aimed at giving to each according to his needs. The labour notes evidently imply payment according to the capacity of each. Besides, what is the use of any system of exchange that is not to be employed for purposes of distribution?[522]