"The value of a thing," says Say, "is a positive quantity, but only for a given moment.It is its nature to perpetually vary, to change from one point to another.Nothing can fix it absolutely, because it is based on needs and means of production which vary with every moment.These variations complicate economical phenomena, and often render them very difficult of observation and solution.I know no remedy for this; it is not in our power to change the nature of things."Elsewhere Say says, and repeats, that value being based on utility, and utility depending entirely on our needs, whims, customs, &c., value is as variable as opinion.Now, political economy being the science of values, of their production, distribution, exchange, and consumption,--if exchangeable value cannot be absolutely determined, how is political economy possible? How can it be a science? How can two economists look each other in the face without laughing? How dare they insult metaphysicians and psychologists? What! that fool of a Descartes imagined that philosophy needed an immovable base--an _aliquid inconcussum_--on which the edifice of science might be built, and he was simple enough to search for it! And the Hermes of economy, Trismegistus Say, devoting half a volume to the amplification of that solemn text, _political economy is a science_, has the courage to affirm immediately afterwards that this science cannot determine its object,--which is equivalent to saying that it is without a principle or foundation! He does not know, then, the illustrious Say, the nature of a science; or rather, he knows nothing of the subject which he discusses.
Say's example has borne its fruits.Political economy, as it exists at present, resembles ontology: discussing effects and causes, it knows nothing, explains nothing, decides nothing.The ideas honored with the name of economic laws are nothing more than a few trifling generalities, to which the economists thought to give an appearance of depth by clothing them in high-sounding words.As for the attempts that have been made by the economists to solve social problems, all that can be said of them is, that, if a glimmer of sense occasionally appears in their lucubrations, they immediately fall back into absurdity.For twenty-five years political economy, like a heavy fog, has weighed upon France, checking the efforts of the mind, and setting limits to liberty.
Has every creation of industry a venal, absolute, unchangeable, and consequently legitimate and true value?--Yes.
Can every product of man be exchanged for some other product of man?--Yes, again.
How many nails is a pair of shoes worth?
If we can solve this appalling problem, we shall have the key of the social system for which humanity has been searching for six thousand years.In the presence of this problem, the economist recoils confused; the peasant who can neither read nor write replies without hesitation: "As many as can be made in the same time, and with the same expense."The absolute value of a thing, then, is its cost in time and expense.How much is a diamond worth which costs only the labor of picking it up?--Nothing; it is not a product of man.How much will it be worth when cut and mounted?--The time and expense which it has cost the laborer.Why, then, is it sold at so high a price?--Because men are not free.Society must regulate the exchange and distribution of the rarest things, as it does that of the most common ones, in such a way that each may share in the enjoyment of them.What, then, is that value which is based upon opinion?--Delusion, injustice, and robbery.
By this rule, it is easy to reconcile every body.If the mean term, which we are searching for, between an infinite value and no value at all is expressed in the case of every product, by the amount of time and expense which the product cost, a poem which has cost its author thirty years of labor and an outlay of ten thousand francs in journeys, books, &c., must be paid for by the ordinary wages received by a laborer during thirty years, PLUSten thousand francs indemnity for expense incurred.Suppose the whole amount to be fifty thousand francs; if the society which gets the benefit of the production include a million of men, my share of the debt is five centimes.
This gives rise to a few observations.
1.The same product, at different times and in different places, may cost more or less of time and outlay; in this view, it is true that value is a variable quantity.But this variation is not that of the economists, who place in their list of the causes of the variation of values, not only the means of production, but taste, caprice, fashion, and opinion.In short, the true value of a thing is invariable in its algebraic expression, although it may vary in its monetary expression.
2.The price of every product in demand should be its cost in time and outlay--neither more nor less: every product not in demand is a loss to the producer--a commercial non-value.
3.The ignorance of the principle of evaluation, and the difficulty under many circumstances of applying it, is the source of commercial fraud, and one of the most potent causes of the inequality of fortunes.
