If Then The Prosperity Of The Commercial

Labour, Like All Other Things Which Are Purchased And Sold, And Which May Be Increased Or Diminished In Quantity, Has Its Natural And Its Market Price. The Natural Price Of Labour Is That Price Which Is Necessary To Enable The Labourers, On With Another, To Subsist And To Perpetuate Their Race, Without Either Increase Or Diminution.

I Have Already Expressed My Opinion On This Subject In Treating Of Rent, And Have Now Only Further To Add, That Rent Is A Creation Of Value, As I Understand That Word, But Not A Creation Of Wealth.

I Have Endeavoured To Show That The Ability To Pay Taxes Depends, Not On The Gross Money Value Of The Mass Of Commodities, Nor On The Net Money Value Of The Revenue Of Capitalists And Landlords, But On The Money Value Of Each Man's Revenue Compared To The Money Value Of The Commodities Which He Usually Consumes.

A Rise Of Wages From This Cause Will, Indeed, Be Invariably Accompanied By A Rise In The Price Of Commodities; But In Such Cases, It Will Be Found That Labour And All Commodities Have Not Varied In Regard To Each Other, And That The Variation Has Been Confined To Money.

Experience, However, Shows That Neither A State Nor A Bank Ever Have [sic] Had The Unrestricted Power Of Issuing Paper Money Without Abusing That Power; In All States, Therefore, The Issue Of Paper Money Ought To Be Under Some Check And Control; And None Seems So Proper For That Purpose As That Of Subjecting The Issuers Of Paper Money To The Obligation Of Paying Their Notes Either In Gold Coin Or Bullion.