e valuable in proportion as they possess utility.
If again we ask him to explain to us by what means we are to judge of
the utility of objects, he answers, by their value. Thus then the
measure of value is utility, and the measure of utility is value.

M. Say, in speaking of the excellences and imperfections of the great
work of Adam Smith, imputes to him, as an error, that "he attributes to
the labour of man alone the power of producing value. A more correct
analysis shews us that value is owing to the action of labour, or rather
the industry of man, combined with the action of those agents which
nature supplies, and with that of capital. His ignorance of this
principle prevented him from establishing the true theory of the
influence of machinery in the production of riches."

In contradiction to the opinion of Adam Smith, M. Say, in the fourth
chapter, speaks of the value which is given to commodities by natural
agents, such as the sun, the air, the pressure of the atmosphere &c.,
which are sometimes substituted for the labour of man, and sometimes
concur with him in producing.[29]

But these natural agents, though they add greatly to _value in use_,
never add exchangeable value, of which M. Say is speaking, to a
commodity: as soon as by the aid of machinery, or by the knowledge of
natural philosophy, you oblige natural agents to do the work which was
before done by man, the exchangeable value of such work falls
accordingly. If ten men turned a corn mill, and it be discovered that by
the assistance of wind, or of water, the labour of these ten men may be
spared, the flour, which is the produce of the work performed by the
mill, would immediately fall in value, in proportion to the quantity of
labour saved; and the society would be richer by the commodities which
the labour of the ten men could produce, the funds destined for their
maintenance being in no degree impaired.

M. Say accuses Dr. Smith of having overlooked the value which is given
to commodities by natural agents, and by machinery, because he
considered that the value of all things was derived from the labour of
man; but it does not appear to me, that this charge is made out; for
Adam Smith no where under-values the services which these natural
agents and machinery perform for us, but he very justly distinguishes
the nature of the value which they add to commodities--they are
serviceable to us, by increasing the abundance of productions, by making
men r