VALUE

the fundamental conception in the science of economics, is the quality which makes wealth. It is not to be confounded with price, which is value expre ed in terms of one article (viz.) gold or silver. All values are not capable of being expre ed in such terms, Consequently there may be wealth that has no price, but never wealth that has no value. Political economists are chiefly concerned with the question of the origin of value, and they have drawn very many useful distinctions, the most important of which is that between value in use and value in exchange. To the latter they confine the term value; and for them, as for the busine world, an article has value when somebody will give something for it. But what determines this willingne to give something? The answer is ‘value in use,’ or, as economists prefer to call it, ‘utility.’ Utility for the economist signifies any article or commodity which satisfies some desire of man. There is no moral judgment implied, and strong drink and temperance trusts alike may have value. But things have different values, and whence arises the difference?. It is the relative scarcity that determines the relative value.