Page:Malthus 1823 The Measure of Value.djvu/44

 In all cases it would still be found that, as Adam Smith says, it is the produce which varies, in value, not the labour for which it will exchange; and if money were obtained in the^ way in which its value would unquestionably be the most constant, all these variations would, appear in the money prices of commodities, whenever the demand for labour varied; while the money price of a given quantity of labour would remain the same.

The following Table will further illustrate the necessary constancy in the value of labour, and some of its most important results, in a clearer manner and in a shorter compass than if each case were taken separately.

The, first column represents the yarying fertility of the soil, by the varying quantity of corn which can be obtained by the labour of a given number of men.