Two elaborate papers on the measure of value, written in 1825 and 1827, show that Malthus was becoming inclined to make less of his differences with Ricardo.[595] They were intimate friends; their discussions had no bitterness; and, to use the words of one of them, “both were so anxious for the truth that sooner or later they would have agreed.”[596] These papers are a fulfilment of his duty not (as we might guess) as a fellow of the Royal Society or a member of the Political Economy Club,[597] but as an associate of the Royal Society of Literature.[598] “That branch of literature” [_sic_] “on which it shall be his duty to communicate with the Society once a year at least” is described as “political economy and statistics.”[599] He does little credit in these papers to his literary faculty. Their composition is laboured and devoid of ornament. The first is _On the Measure of the Conditions necessary to the Supply of Commodities_; and the thesis is, that “the natural and necessary conditions of the supply of all commodities,” that are not monopolies, are represented and measured by the labour which they will on an average command, and by nothing else. The second is _On the Meaning which is most usually and most correctly attached to the term, Value of Commodities_; and the thesis is, that, when value is used without a qualifying adjective or reference to any special equivalent in a possible exchange,[600] the term refers to the “conditions of supply.” When we say, for example, anything is sold at a price far above its true value, we mean far above its cost price, including under “cost” the average rate of profits that must go to the maker if he is to live by his trade. The two papers taken together form a sort of indirect proof of the position taken up in the tract on the _Measure of Value_ (1823), and the relevant parts of the second edition of the _Political Economy_ (1836), and may be stated briefly thus:—The labour commanded by an article is generally the measure of that article’s cost;—but that article’s cost is what people generally mean by its value;—therefore the labour commanded by an article is the measure of that article’s value in the ordinary sense of the word.