made, the more rapid is the growth of the power of accumulation, and the decline in the value of all existing machinery when measured by labor.

In this state of things, let us suppose a vessel to arrive, the master of which desires supplies of fruit, fish, or meat, for which he offers axes, or muskets, in exchange. Our colonists, valuing the commodities they have to part with by the amount of labor they have cost to produce, or by the quantity necessary for their reproduction—the fruit at less than potatoes, and hares and rabbits at less than deer will not give the produce of five days' labor in venison, if they can obtain what they require for potatoes that could be obtained in exchange for that of four.

In estimating the value of the commodities offered to them in exchange, they will pursue a course exactly similar measuring the amount of difficulty standing in the way of obtaining them by any other process. It has cost them the labor of months to make a rude axe, and if they can obtain a good one at similar cost, it will be more advantageous to do so than to employ the same time in the production of another similar to the one they already have. Such instruments, however, they can make for themselves but muskets they cannot; and they will attach more value to the possession of a single musket, than to that of several axes. They might give the provisions obtained by the labor of several months for the one; but they would be willing to give all the accumulations of a year for the other.

Let us suppose that each is enabled to supply himself with a musket and an axe, and examine the effect. Both parties being exactly equal — each possessing the same machinery — their labor would be of equal value, and the average produce of a day of the one would continue to exchange for that of a day of the other.

The house that had cost, at first, the labor of a year, could be reproduced, with the assistance of the first rude axe, by that of half a year; but a similar one might now be built in a month. It is, however, so inferior to those that can now be constructed, that it is abandoned, and ceases to have any value whatsoever. It will not, perhaps, command the efforts of a single day. The first axe in like manner declines in value. The increased capital of the community has thus been attended with a diminution in the value of all that had been accumulated previously to the ship's VOL. I.-11

arrival; while that of labor, as compared with houses, has risentwo months now providing shelter vastly superior to that which had been at first obtained in exchange for that of twelve.

The value of the provisions that had been accumulated experiences a similar fall. A week's labor of a man armed with a musket is more productive of venison than that of months without its aid; and the value of the existing stock is measured by the effort required for its reproduction-and not by what its production had cost. Labor being now aided by intellect, a smaller quantity of muscular exertion is required for the production of a given effect.

In mere brute force, a man is equal to the traction of 200 pounds at an uniform rate of four miles an hour-whereas a horse can draw 1800 at a similar rate; and, therefore, of men unaided by intellect it requires no less than nine to equal a single horse. Intelligence, however, enables him to master the horse; and now, adding the powers of the latter to his own, he can move ten times as great a weight, while the quantity of labor required for obtaining food to keep in operation this increased amount of muscular effort is not even doubled. With further knowledge he obtains the command of the wonderful power of steam; and now, with the help of half a dozen men to furnish fuel, he controls a power equal to hundreds of horses, or thousands of men. The force by which this labor is accomplished, is in THE MAN; and, as that force is brought to bear upon the matter by which he is surrounded, the value of his labors is increased, with constant increase in his power of further progress. The master of the vessel obtained for an axe, produced by a mechanic in a single day, provisions that had required months for their collection and preservation, because the labors of the mechanic had been aided by intelligence; whereas the poor and lonely settlers were, almost altogether, dependent upon that quality in which they were excelled by the horse and many other animals-mere brute force.

Throughout the operations of the world the result is the same. The savage gives skins, the product of many months of exertion, for a few beads, a knife, a musket, and a little powder. The people of Poland give wheat, produced by the labor of months, for clothing produced by that of a few days, assisted by capital in the form of machinery, and the intellect required to guide it.

Those of India give a year's labor for as much clothing or provisions as could be had in the United States for that of a month. The people of Italy give a year's exertions for less than those of England obtain in half a year. The mechanic, aided by his knowledge of his trade, obtains in a single week as much as the laborer can earn in two; and the dealer in merchandise, who has devoted his time to obtaining a thorough knowledge of his business, gains in a month as much as his neighbor, less skilled in it, can do in a year.

In order that quantity of labor may be a measure of value, there must be an equal power to command the services of nature. The product of two carpenters in New York or Philadelphia can generally be exchanged for that of two masons; and that of two shoemakers will not vary much in value from that of two tailors. The time of a laborer in Boston is nearly equal in value to that of another in Pittsburg, Cincinnati, or St. Louis; but it will not be given for that of a laborer in Paris or Havre-the latter not being aided to the same extent by machinery, and being therefore more dependent on mere brute force. The value of labor, as compared with that of the commodities required for man's support, varies to a small extent in the various portions of France, as is the case with that of the different parts of England and of India; but between the man of Paris and his competitor of Sedan, or Lille, the variation is trifling, compared with that which exists between a workman in any part of France, and one in the United States. The circumstances which affect the power of man over nature in Paris and Lille are, in a great measure, common to all the people of France; as are those which affect that of a workman in Philadelphia to all the people of the Union. Here we find the same effect at the same time, but at different places, that has before been shown to be produced at the same place, but at different times. The improved machinery of our colonists having increased their powers, their third year was more valuable than that of the two previous ones had been; and in like manner a single year's labor in the United States is worth more than that of two in France. Labor grows in value in the direct ratio of the substitution of mental for muscular force of the peculiar qualities by which man is distinguished from the animal, for those which he possesses in common with so many animals;

and in the same precise ratio does the value of all commodities decline.

§ 3. The house and the axe, the capital that had been accumulated, fell in value when, by the aid of improved implements, labor had been rendered more productive — the necessary consequence of an increased facility of accumulation. With every step in this direction, the laborer finds an increase in the reward for bodily or mental exertion, as is seen in the fact that the clothing which, half a century since, would have purchased the labor of weeks, could not now command that of as many days. Half a century since, a steam-engine would have required the labor of a life to pay for it, but at present it could be exchanged for that of very few years of a common workman of the United States. In fact, like the house first built by the settler, so great would be found its inferiority to those now produced, that a purchaser at any price whatsoever could with difficulty be found.

The value of commodities or machinery at the time of production is measured by the quantity and quality of labor required to produce them. Every improvement in the mode of production tends to increase the power of labor, and to diminish the quantity required for the reproduction of similar articles. With every such improvement there is a diminution in the quantity that can be obtained in exchange for those previously existing; and because no commodity can be exchanged for more labor than is required for its reproduction. In every community in which population and wealth increase, such changes are taking place, and each is seen to be but preparatory to new and greater ones, with constantly increasing tendency to decline in the labor value of existing commodities, or machines, that have been accumulated. The longer, therefore, that any one, in the mode of producing which improvements have been made, has been in existence-even where there has been no change in its powers from use — the smaller is the proportion which its present value bears to that which it originally possessed.

The silver produced in the fourteenth century was exchanged for labor at the rate of sevenpence halfpenny for that of a week. Since that time it has steadily diminished in its power of commanding the services of men, until, at the present time, twelve or

fifteen shillings are required to obtain as much of them as, five centuries, since could be had for 74d. The various persons through whose hands has passed the silver that existed in the fourteenth century, have thus experienced a constant depreciation in the quantity of labor that their capital would command. An axe made fifty years since, of equal quality with the best of the present time and which had remained unused—would not now exchange for half as much as it would have done on the day of its production.

§ 4. Diminution in the value of capital is attended by a diminution in the proportion of the product of labor given for its use by those who, unable to purchase, desire to hire it. Had the first axe been the exclusive property of one of our colonists, he would have demanded more than half of the wood that could be cut, in return for granting the loan of it. Although it had cost him a vast amount of labor, it would do but little work; and large as was the proportion of its product he was thus enabled to demand, the quantity that he would receive would still be very sinall. His neighbor, on the other hand, would find it far more to his advantage to give three-fourths of the product of his labor for the use of the axe, than to continue to depend on his hands alone; as with it he could fell more trees in a day than without it he could do in a month. The arrival of the ship having given them better axes at smaller cost, neither would now give for their use so large a proportion as he would before have done. The man who, fifty years since, desired the use of such an instrument for a year, would have given the labor of far more days, than he would now, when by that of a single day he might become the owner of one of greatly superior power. When A possessed the only house in the settlement, he could have demanded of B, for permission to use it for any given time, a much larger number of days' labor than B would be willing to give, when the possession of an axe enabled him to construct a similar one in a month. At the time that a week's labor would command only 74d. of silver, the owner of a pound of that metal could demand a much larger proportion in return for its use, than can now be done, when the laborer obtains that quantity by the exertions of little more than a fortnight. Every improvement by which production is aided, is attended not only by a reduction in