ing decrease in the cost of that particular article, and by consequence, in all the articles of its class, and then by degrees, in the cost of all other articles though not of its kind.

62. Effect of machinery on price.

Thus the discovery of cotton and the invention of the machinery for making cotton goods, have reduced the price of all clothing materials, silk and woolen as well as cotton; and by releasing labor from the production of commodities used for clothing, it has increased the supply of labor for the production of other things, and thus reduced their prices also. This reduction in price, however, as already said, will not occur when there is in the nature of things a limit to the possibility of increasing the supply. In such cases the price will rise under the law of supply and demand, and the exchangeable value is likely to rise also, because of the increased difficulty of procuring a given quantity of the article, the more we approach the limit of its final exhaustion, until the price shall have reached the highest intrinsic value of the article for any use whatever.

63. Why not uniform in its influence.

Again the reduction in the average price will not

be uniform in all commodities. And in some it may not be apparent because of an increase in the intrinsic value.

The best quality of cloth in market now, may be no cheaper than the best cloth was many years ago; but then it is better than could have been bought then at any price. In fact this increase in the intrinsic value given to all articles by the superiority in the process of manufacture, goes far to obscure the important law we are discussing.

Again there is another reason why reduction in the average price of articles will not be uniform. It will be greatest in those things in the production of which machinery can be used to the greatest extent, and with the greatest advantage.

Hence the reduction in the price of agricultural products, and of "raw material" generally, may not be very great. In some articles there may be no reduction. And in some, under the influence of the law of limitation spoken of, there may be indeed an increase of price.

And in regard to manufactured goods, the reduction will be most apparent, and if we allow for the increase of intrinsic value or improvement in quality already spoken of, the reduction will be the greatest in the most highly manufactured commodities. And yet, even this difference will not be so great as the difference in extent to which the ma

chinery is used. And it is quite possible that in some cases the increase in the intrinsic value may be so great that there will be no reduction in the price of the article. In other cases, the article will be poorer and very much cheaper. This is probably the case with shoes and clothing made by machinery. But taking all things together, the general law stated with regard to a reduction of prices just in proportion to a reduction in the amount of human labor, will hold good.

Prices have a wonderful power of equalizing themselves. The release of some laborers from manufactures and trade will increase the number that will be devoted to agriculture, and thus produce an effect on the price of agricultural commodities also.

64. Recapitulation and summary.

Having now arrived at a very important result in regard to the cost of the commodities most in demand in any civilized country, it may be well to recall and recapitulate the most important steps we have taken.

(1) Every object in nature has intrinsic value. The first class of laborers-the producers-give to articles exchangeable value, increase their intrinsic value, and determine their amount.

(2) The second class, the manufacturers, increase

both the intrinsic and the exchangeable value, though the latter less than the former, they determine the intrinsic value, but they add nothing to the amount.

(3) The third class, the traders, increase the exchangeable value, but they add to neither the intrinsic value nor the amount of the commodities they deal with. They add to the wealth of the community only by saving the time and labor that would otherwise be required to accomplish what they, in their appropriate way, perform.

65. Elements of the labor of production.

What we pay for when we purchase an article, is simply human labor. This may be resolved into several elements, in order that the truth of the proposition may be more readily seen.

(1) The labor actually expended by each of the classes, producers, manufacturers and traders.

(2) The labor actually bestowed in making the tools, machinery, etc., by means of which the forces of nature were utilized and made to do man's work in each of these departments—or rather that part of the tools, etc., which was used up, worn away and destroyed by the labor actually bestowed on the article, whose price may happen to be under consideration.

In the wages paid to the immediate laborers, as the producers, the manufacturers and the farmers, there is included the three-fold element.

(1) The amount which they must pay for, (a) the food they consume, (b) the clothes they wear out, (c) the houses in which they live, as well as (d) certain other incidental and inevitable personal expenses. Something of each of these items must enter into the cost of the production of every commodity that has exchangeable value at all—and all of them cost labor, or the products of labor, and cost only the labor that is put into them.

(2) That portion of the increment of the aggregate wealth of the community which, under the ordinary name of "profits," goes, or should go, to each laborer as something more than is needed for food, clothing, etc., as specified above, and which by care, frugality, and economy on his part becomes his wealth, his private property, his fortune, his means of independence, which he can use as capital to increase the productiveness of his own labor, or as means to promote his own ease and comfort, his culture and the improvement of his own social position.

66. Land both a tool and a force.

Among the means that man can or does use, there