ties, however, form a very small part of the mass of
commodities daily exchanged in the market. By far the greatest part of
those goods which are the objects of desire, are procured by labour; and
they may be multiplied, not in one country alone, but in many, almost
without any assignable limit, if we are disposed to bestow the labour
necessary to obtain them.

In speaking then of commodities, of their exchangeable value, and of the
laws which regulate their relative prices, we mean always such
commodities only as can be increased in quantity by the exertion of
human industry, and on the production of which competition operates
without restraint.

In the early stages of society, the exchangeable value of these
commodities, or the rule which determines how much of one shall be
given in exchange for another, depends solely on the comparative
quantity of labour expended on each.

"The real price of every thing," says Adam Smith, "what every thing
really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble
of acquiring it. What every thing is really worth to the man who has
acquired it, and who wants to dispose of it, or exchange it for
something else, is the toil and trouble which it can save to himself,
and which it can impose upon other people." "Labour was the first
price--the original purchase-money that was paid for all things." Again,
"in that early and rude state of society, which precedes both the
accumulation of stock and the appropriation of land, the proportion
between the quantities of labour necessary for acquiring different
objects, seems to be the only circumstance which can afford any rule for
exchanging them for one another. If among a nation of hunters, for
example, it usually cost twice the labour to kill a beaver which it does
to kill a deer, one beaver should naturally exchange for, or be worth
two deer. It is natural that what is usually the produce of two days',
or two hours' labour, should be worth double of what is usually the
produce of one day's, or one hour's labour."[2]

That this is really the foundation of the exchangeable value of all
things, excepting those which cannot be increased by human industry, is
a doctrine of the utmost importance in political economy; for from no
source do so many errors, and so much difference of opinion in that
science proceed, as from the vague ideas, which are attached to the word
value.

If the quantity of labour realized in commodities, re