for this contribution. The true product of the
_entrepreneur_ is not the entire price of the A', but is the
difference between that and the price of the A. The entire
amount received for the A' resolves itself into wages,
interest, and cost of A; but as a rule the price of A
resolves itself practically into wages and interest only, and
when it does so, all that is paid for the A' ultimately takes
these forms. The same is then true of the finished product
A'''. The entire price of it is ultimately resolvable into
wages and interest; and in speaking of the product of an
entire group we do not need to make any reservation for raw
materials.

The case in which this statement requires qualification is
that in which the material in its rawest state still has
value, as is the case with ore and mineral oil contained in
the earth but not a true part of land in the economic sense,
since they are exhausted in the using. The price of a product
into which these elements enter includes something that
represents the value which they have _in situ_ and before any
labor has been expended on them. It is true even in these
cases that the value of the product is measured in terms of
wages and interest, provided that the exhaustible elements
such as ore, oil, etc., are capable of being replenished, or
provided that an effective substitute for them is in process
of production by means of labor and capital. The natural raw
material is then worth what the artificial substitute costs
in terms of capital and labor, and the finished product which
contains some of the natural material sells for the amount
which the finished product costs, which is made altogether by
labor and capital applied to valueless elements in nature.

_How Costs are Determined._--The early studies of "natural" values, or
values which conform to costs of production, were unconscious and
imperfect attempts to attain the laws of value in a static state. In
such a state costs resolve themselves into wages and interest, and the
conception of such a static state is therefore not complete unless we
know how wages and interest themselves are determined. What we have
already said implies that they fluctuate about certain standards, just
as do the prices of goods, and that they would remain at these
standards if society were reduced to a static condition.

_Signifi