It must be allowed that the expression _labour and capital_ is essentially tautological. In every definition of capital I have met with, the means of commanding labour are included; and there can be no doubt that machinery and raw materials require labour for their production of the same general description, and usually in as large a proportion, as the labour advanced by the last capitalist. Speaking loosely, we may indeed use the expression _labour and capital_, meaning by capital, when so used, all that part of the general description of capital which does not consist of the means of commanding the immediate labour required. But when we are engaged in an inquiry into the elements of value, nothing can be more unphilosophical than to talk of labour and capital. Excluding rent and taxes, the only elements concerned in regulating the value of commodities are labour and profits, including, of course, in such labour, the labour worked up in the raw materials, and that portion of the machinery worn out in the production; and including in the profits, the profits of the producers of the raw materials and machinery. To say that the values of commodities are regulated or determined by the _quantity_ of _capital and labour_ necessary to produce them is essentially false. To say that the values of commodities are regulated by the quantities of labour _and profits_ necessary to produce them is, I believe, essentially true. And if so, it was a point of some importance to substitute the expression _labour and profits_ for the customary one of _labour and capital_. I have been detained longer than I intended by the Critical Dissertation on the Nature, Measures, and Causes of Value. There is still matter of animadversion remaining; but were I to go on I should tire my readers, if I have not done it already. The author, when not under the influence of his peculiar definitions, makes some very just observations; and the work is exceedingly well written; which makes it a matter of greater surprise that its main proposition should be so strikingly adverse to the principle of utility, and so peculiarly calculated to retard the progress of that science which it must have been intended to promote. I do not think it necessary to the object I have in view, to proceed further with these remarks on the definition and use of terms among political economists. What I have already said, if just, will be sufficient to show that much uncertainty has arisen from our[84] negligence on this important point, and much improvement might be expected from greater attention to it. I shall now, therefore, proceed to define some of the principal terms in political economy, as nearly as I can, according to the rules laid down. But before I begin, I think it may be useful to give a summary of the reasons for adopting the subjoined definition of the measure of value.