The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other EssaysVeblen, Thorstein
Philosophy
The Place of Science in Modern Civilisation, and Other Essays
Veblen, Thorstein
Economics; Science
motives and the exigencies of the market, Adam Smith feels that he has
only cleared the ground. He then turns to the serious business of
accounting for value and price theoretically, and making the ascertained
facts articulate with his teleological theory of economic life.[13]
The occurrence of the words "ordinary" and "average" in this connection
need not be taken too seriously. The context makes it plain that the
equality which commonly subsists between the ordinary or average rates,
and the natural rates, is a matter of coincidence, not of identity. Not
only are there temporary deviations, but there may be a permanent
divergence between the ordinary and the natural price of a commodity; as
in case of a monopoly or of produce grown under peculiar circumstances
of soil or climate.[14]
The natural price coincides with the price fixed by competition, because
competition means the unimpeded play of those efficient forces through
which the nicely adjusted mechanism of nature works out the design to
accomplish which it was contrived. The natural price is reached through
the free interplay of the factors of production, and it is itself an
outcome of production. Nature, including the human factor, works to turn
out the goods; and the natural value of the goods is their appraisement
from the standpoint of this productive process of nature. Natural value
is a category of production: whereas, notoriously exchange value or
market price is a category of distribution. And Adam Smith's theoretical
handling of market price aims to show how the factors of human
predilection and human wants at work in the higgling of the market
bring about a result in passable consonance with the natural laws that
are conceived to govern production.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account