Any man will be inclined to exchange one instrument for another, if, by so doing, he can save himself any part of the labor which he must otherwise expend in producing that other.A lives in some place where willows are to be had for cutting them; he employs himself in making willow baskets, one of which he finishes in two days;B offers him a straw hat for it.If he wants a straw hat, and thinks that, were he to set a making one, it would occupy him more than two days, and moreover, that neither D, E or F, who make straw hats, will give it for less; he will be inclined to make the exchange.In doing so, it is a matter of indifference to him what time B may have expended in making the hat, his only reason for entering into the transaction, is the saving of labor to himself he thereby effects.In reality, however, it is altogether likely that B has not expended more than two days in making it.For, supposing, as in this case we may, that both A and B have the same natural faculties, B, were he to set about making willow baskets, could make them as well and as easily as A, that is at the rate of one in two days.If then the straw hat cost him more than two days labor, he would rather make a willow basket for himself than exchange his straw hat for it.Even if he had not the manual skill necessary, he would apply himself to acquire it, and take to the occupation of basket-making in preference to that of making hats;as we see, in employments where mere labor is concerned, that one is deserted for another according as it gives less or more wages.
It so comes to pass that in the same society, in all exchanges, as far as we can conceive mere labor to be concerned, one man, A, barters that which has cost him two, or twenty days labor, with that which has cost another, B, two, or twenty days labor.We must however bear in mind, that neither does A offer the article, nor does Breceive it, simply because it has cost two, or twenty days labor.A offers it, and B receives it, because it is an instrument to supply future wants, and under the supposition that it cannot be got for less than two or twenty days labor.In such cases, the person desirous of making the exchange may indeed say to the individual with whom he wishes to exchange; Sir, I assure you the article cost me two, or twenty days labor, as the case may be;and being assured of this, the person so addressed may think it sufficient grounds to make the exchange, and may so conclude the bargain;but he does so, not because the other has expended two or twenty days'
labor on it, but because, be having expended this, be concludes it cannot be got for less.That if it has cost him two or twenty days' work, it would have cost, and would cost himself, or any other, the same labor.If he knows that the person desirous of exchanging is an unskilful or bungling workman, or if he sees that the labor has been injudiciously applied, he will not give what is demanded.He knows, in that case, that he can make it, er get it made, for less.Were one to employ himself in rolling a stone up hill and down hill for a month together, he would leave it as useless to him in the way of exchange as before he put his hand to it.
It may be laid down as a rule, then, that in as Far as labor simply is concerned in all exchanges, one thing will be bartered for another, not in proportion to the labor that has been respectively bestowed on each, but in proportion to that which it is necessary to bestow on materials, similar to those of which each has been constructed, to make other articles equal to them in capacity to supply wants.That, if this basket exchanges for that hat, though each may have cost two days' labor, it is not exactly because each has cost it, but because neither a basket equally good as the one, nor a hat equally good as the other, can be made for less than two days' labor.
As a corollary from this, it follows that, whenever an article comes to be made with less labor than formerly, articles of the same sort which may have been previously manufactured, procure for their owners less of other articles in exchange than they did before.They exchange, not for what labor has been actually wrought up in them, but for what is now required to make others similar to them.Thus, supposing that a basket-maker, say in some settlement in North America, having to go on foot a considerable distance through woods and swamps for his willow twigs, requires one day to procure enough to make a basket, and that he takes another to work them up, he would then probably receive for each basket two days' labor, or articles having cost two days' labor.If now, however, a place where equally good willows grow is discovered near at hand, so that only half a day is required to get enough for a basket, and if this is generally known, he will no longer be able to exchange them at the same rate, because, as we have seen, other people would make baskets for less, that is, for one and a half days' labor, or for articles in the fabrication of which the labor of one and a half days bad been expended.Any stock then he might have on hand of baskets made previously to this discovery, would only exchange for articles requiring for their fabrication the labor of a day and a half.
The same rule that applies to this trivial instance, holds good in affairs of greater importance, and regulates a large amount of exchanges.
