Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/659

 E C O N O MI ( $ IN A N C IE N  IND I 641 cause or causes of the phenomenon of prices, and acrimonious controversies occurred on the arious causes of value, such as utility, scarcity, difficulty of acqms- tion, cost of production, cost of reproduction, marginal utility, we find that it scholars have come to is only recently that many unanimously recognize the first five as the principal conditions of the origin of value, and to acknowledge the last, the marginal or liminal utility, as the one single cause capable of explaining the complex phenomenon of values. Uiiliiy--Let us first of all take up the theory of prices as it has been worked out by Sukra, who was probably the first in the world to lay down a few fondamental conceptions concerning value. He main- kains that utility is everywhere one of the essential conditions of value or, as the late Professor Jevons expressed so forcibly, that "value depends entirely on utility." His words are: "There is no price for things which are incapable of ministering to human well-being, and whose excellence has not been recog- nized in ordinary life." When we know that anything which is capable of satisfying a human want is a good, or possesses ui]ity, one cannot refrain from re- marking that Sukra has thoroughly understood this root-cause of all values. Iirinic tial condition which in terms of economy "certain Vu/ue--But he has stated a second essen- modern political is known by the name 'of intrinsic value-- properties in an object which make it capabls of satisfying a human want". According to the preceptor only goods which are endowed with some such qualities and can be used for gratifying human desires possess value. However, he was at the same time cautious enough