supplies of it which they have; they do not want
more, or at least do not want it so urgently. It follows that they are
unwilling to give much wealth for it. Thus the labour spent upon
producing a commodity does not affect the value of that commodity,
unless it alters the quantity of it which people can get, and thus makes
a further supply of the commodity more or less useful than before.

#75. Why Pearls are valuable#. To make this still more plain, let us
endeavour to answer this difficult question, "Do men dive for pearls
because pearls fetch a high price, or do pearls fetch a high price
because men must dive in order to get them?" Pearl-diving is a very
dangerous and laborious kind of work. The divers have to jump into the
deep sea with heavy weights to carry them down, and they must hold their
breath a long time while they are engaged in collecting the oyster
shells at the bottom. The number of good pearls which they generally get
is small compared with the great toil of getting them. It follows that,
on the average, they must receive a high price for what they do find,
otherwise they would not have adequate wages for such work. But this
alone is not a sufficient reason for the pearls being so valuable,
otherwise the mother of pearl shells, in which the pearls are found, and
brought up, would be as valuable as the pearls. But mother of pearl is
a very cheap substance. Again, if it were merely a question of labour, a
diver might go down anywhere, and, bringing up the first stone or shell
he found, insist on selling it for a high price, because he had dived
for it. The truth is, that pearls are valuable because there are many
ladies who have not got pearl necklaces, and who would like to have
them; and those who have some pearls would like to get more and finer
ones. In short, then, pearls are valuable because they are useful to
ladies who want more pearl ornaments: they are thus useful because the
ladies have not hitherto been able to get as many as they would like;
and they have not been able to get many, because it is so difficult to
fish them up from the bottom of the sea. Here we have the whole theory
of value and labour. #The labour which is required to get more of a
commodity governs the supply of it; the supply determines whether people
do or do not want more of it eagerly; and this eagerness of want or
demand governs value.#

CHAPTER XII.

MONEY.

#76. Barter.# When exchanges are made by giving o