science:—it deals with the due relations of men to each other in regard of material possessions; and with the just laws of their association for purposes of labour.
I shall in this first chapter shortly sketch out the range of subjects which will come before us as we follow these three branches of inquiry.
12. And first of Wealth, which, it has been said, consists of things essentially valuable. We now, therefore, need a definition of "value."
"Value" signifies the strength, or "availing" of anything towards the sustaining of life, and is always twofold; that is to say, primarily, intrinsic, and secondarily, effectual.
The reader must, by anticipation, be warned against confusing value with cost, or with price. Value is the life-giving power of anything; cost, the quantity of labour required to produce it; price, the quantity of labour which its possessor will take in exchange for it.[1] Cost
- ↑ [* Observe these definitions,—they are of much importance,—and connect with them the sentences in italics on next page.]
