Page:Shop Talks on Economics.djvu/18

 Gold has steadily been decreasing in value in the past ten years owing to the improved methods of producing gold and the decreasing quantity of labor contained in it.

Rubber is steadily growing more valuable because the available world supply has been nearly exhausted and it requires more time hunting or planting, and caring for rubber trees—more labor is contained in a pound of rubber than a few years ago.

Gradually we see huge machines replacing the smaller ones in all the great producing industries and, with the constant introduction of more improved machinery, the quantity of human labor contained in commodities produced by modern methods—grows less and less. Such commodities decrease in value with every decrease in the labor embodied in them.

Price is the money name for which commodities exchange. We are accustomed to figure in gold prices. All our bank notes read "payable in—so much—gold." But gold is a commodity just like bread, or overcoats, or dresses, or automobiles. And commodities tend to exchange for the sum of gold containing a quantity of labor equal to the quantity of labor contained in them.

That is, if ten dollars in gold contains forty hours of necessary labor, that gold will exchange for (or will