ing to their stock coat after coat, watch after
watch, etc., all just alike, till the utility of the last one becomes
so small that it is better to buy other things. On this supposition
the price of the whole supply of any such thing corresponds with the
utility of the last one in the consumer's series. This fairly well
describes the case of commodities like apples, of which men consume
now more and now less per day or per week and are always glad to
increase the amount they use. Of most kinds of consumers' goods a
person wants at one time one unit and no more, and a second unit, if
he has to use it himself within the same time in which he uses the
first, would be an incumbrance. Its utility would be a negative
quantity. Two quite similar coats would never be bought by the same
person if he had only his own needs in view and must use both coats
through the same period. The first unit of his supply is, for this
period, also the last.

_The Law of Value affected by the Fact that the Final Unit of a Good
is usually a Complex of Unlike Utilities._--The second imperfection
consists in the assumption that in measuring the utility of such a
unit the consumer estimates the importance to himself of the article
taken in its entirety. In the case of the apples of our illustration
the difficulty is not obvious. A man, as we have just noticed, may
increase or diminish his consumption of this fruit; the first few
apples that he uses will give him more pleasure than a second similar
quantity, and the price of apples in the market may actually depend on
the utility of the final peck of apples that each of the customers
consumes in a season. In other words, there is, in this instance, a
probability that the goods, although supplied at once, may be
appraised as if they were offered in a regular series and that the law
of final utility, in its common and simple form of statement, may in
this particular apply to the case. The second difficulty, however,
remains, and even in the case of such goods as apples renders the
common statement somewhat inaccurate, while in the case of most kinds
of consumers' goods the inaccuracy is glaring. If the price of fine
watches corresponded with the utility of the last one that a consumer
uses, it would be many times greater than it is. Rather than go
without watches altogether many a man would pay one thousand dollars
for one for which he actually gives a hundred; and, moreover, this
watch may be the "fi