Principles of Political Economy · John Stuart Mill
VALUE.
115. Enumerate, compare, and criticise any opinions known to you which have been held concerning the nature, origin, or measure of value in exchange. 116. Define precisely what it is which gives value to objects, and point out the causes which vary the value of the same object under differing circumstances. 117. Do men dive to the bottom of the sea to get pearls because they are valuable; or are pearls valuable because men must dive to the bottom of the sea to get them? 118. There are three forms of difficulty of attainment. State the law of value applicable to each. 119. Explain the exact economic meaning of the words supply and demand. 120. When it is said that the value of certain commodities depends upon supply and demand, what is meant by demand? 121. If the supply of all commodities were suddenly doubled, would any changes in their relative values ensue or not, and why? 122. State the laws which regulate the permanent and temporary values of agricultural products. 123. How far does the value of commodities depend on the quantity of labor required for their production? 124. Has the term exchange value any precise meaning when we are comparing times or places very remote from one another? 125. What is meant by the natural (or normal) price and the market price of commodities? To what extent can they differ?
126. Does a general rise of wages raise the prices of commodities in general or not, and why? Does it tend to cause any change in the relative prices of commodities or not, and why? 127. Suppose that wages were double, would the values of commodities be affected? What would be the effect on prices and profits of such an increase of wages? 128. Are wages and profits influenced by prices? 129. Can employers recoup themselves by a rise of prices for a rise of— (a.) Wages in particular employments? (b.) General wages? How does this question bear on the efficacy of trades-unionism? 130. Do values depend on wages? 131. Explain the following statement: “It is true the absolute wages paid have no effect upon values; but neither has the absolute quantity of labor.” 132. Explain the statement that “high general profits can not, any more than high general wages, be a cause of high values.... In so far as profits enter into the cost of production of all things, they can not affect the value of any.” 133. Explain fully why it is that capitalists can not compensate themselves for a general high cost of labor through any action on values and prices. 134. “The value of a commodity depends on its cost of production.” Under what conditions is this true, and what causes interfere with it?
135. Describe the hindrances which impede the free movement of capital to those fields which apparently offer the highest return for its employment. 136. Give J. S. Mill’s analysis of the “cost of production,” and also Professor Cairnes’s, with the arguments for and against each. 137. Analyze cost of production. What is its connection with cost of labor? 138. Give an analysis of cost of production of any commodity. 139. Show carefully the distinction between wages, cost of labor, and cost of production. 140. Define clearly value, price, real wages, and cost of production. 141. Define real wages, money wages, cost of labor.
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