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Definitions in Political Economy,: Preceded by an Inquiry Into the Rules which Ought to Guide Political Economists in the Definition and Use of Their Terms; with Remarks on the Deviation from These Rules in Their WritingsMalthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert)

General

Definitions in Political Economy,: Preceded by an Inquiry Into the Rules which Ought to Guide Political Economists in the Definition and Use of Their Terms; with Remarks on the Deviation from These Rules in Their Writings

Name: Definitions in Political Economy,: Preceded by an Inquiry Into the Rules which Ought to Guide Political Economists in the Definition and Use of Their Terms; with Remarks on the Deviation from These Rules in Their Writings
Author: Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert)

Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert)

Classical school of economics; Economics

esteem, that the value of one commodity in relation to any other was
expressed by the quantity of that other for which the first would
exchange; and that, when the first rose in relation to the other, the
other would always fall proportionably in relation to the first? If he
had so expressed himself, his proposition would have obtained universal
consent; it would have been a truism which had never been denied. But as
long as he continues to talk of the esteem in which commodities are
held, his readers must consider him as peculiarly inconsistent, if, on
the supposition of there being only two commodities in existence, he
prefers measuring the esteem in which one of them is held by its
relation to the other, rather than by its relation to the producing
labour. And they must further think, that while he continues to state
that “to know the value of an article at any period is merely to know
its relation in exchange to some other commodity,” he is stating a
proposition which, according to the usual sense in which the word value
is understood when so placed, is totally unfounded. No man, I believe,
but the author would venture to say that he should know the value of
silver four hundred years ago by knowing the quantity of calicoes which
an ounce of silver would then command.

The sixth chapter of the author is entitled “On Measures of Value;” and
the discussion of this subject leads him to such strange conclusions,
that one cannot but feel the greatest surprise at his not seeing that he
must have been proceeding in a wrong course. He ridicules the notion of
its being necessary that a commodity should possess invariable value, in
order to form a perfect measure of value. Such a notion, which he says
in a note has been entertained by all the most distinguished writers in
political economy, he civilly calls an utter absurdity. According to the
doctrines and language of the author, no relation exists between the
value of a commodity at one time and the value of the same sort of
commodity at another; and “the only use of a measure of value, in the
sense of a medium of comparison, is between commodities existing at the
same time.”[68]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

General

Definitions in Political Economy,: Preceded by an Inquiry Into the Rules which Ought to Guide Political Economists in the Definition and Use of Their Terms; with Remarks on the Deviation from These Rules in Their Writings

Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert)

Classical school of economics; Economics

esteem, that the value of one commodity in relation to any other was
expressed by the quantity of that other for which the first would
exchange; and that, when the first rose in relation to the other, the
other would always fall proportionably in relation to the first? If he
had so expressed himself, his proposition would have obtained universal
consent; it would have been a truism which had never been denied. But as
long as he continues to talk of the esteem in which commodities are
held, his readers must consider him as peculiarly inconsistent, if, on
the supposition of there being only two commodities in existence, he
prefers measuring the esteem in which one of them is held by its
relation to the other, rather than by its relation to the producing
labour. And they must further think, that while he continues to state
that “to know the value of an article at any period is merely to know
its relation in exchange to some other commodity,” he is stating a
proposition which, according to the usual sense in which the word value
is understood when so placed, is totally unfounded. No man, I believe,
but the author would venture to say that he should know the value of
silver four hundred years ago by knowing the quantity of calicoes which
an ounce of silver would then command.

The sixth chapter of the author is entitled “On Measures of Value;” and
the discussion of this subject leads him to such strange conclusions,
that one cannot but feel the greatest surprise at his not seeing that he
must have been proceeding in a wrong course. He ridicules the notion of
its being necessary that a commodity should possess invariable value, in
order to form a perfect measure of value. Such a notion, which he says
in a note has been entertained by all the most distinguished writers in
political economy, he civilly calls an utter absurdity. According to the
doctrines and language of the author, no relation exists between the
value of a commodity at one time and the value of the same sort of
commodity at another; and “the only use of a measure of value, in the
sense of a medium of comparison, is between commodities existing at the
same time.”[68]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Definitions in Political Economy,: Preceded by an Inquiry Into the Rules which Ought to Guide Political Economists in the Definition and Use of Their Terms; with Remarks on the Deviation from These Rules in Their Writings

Definitions in Political Economy,: Preceded by an Inquiry Into the Rules which Ought to Guide Political Economists in the Definition and Use of Their Terms; with Remarks on the Deviation from These Rules in Their Writings

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