PART II.: VALUE AND PRICE.

The various methods by which labour may be rendered most productive, and the relation and dependence of the different kinds of industry being traced and exhibited in the preceding chapters, we proceed to the second division of our subject, or to an investigation of the laws which regulate the value and price of the products of industry.

In treating of the production of wealth, it was not necessary to inquire whether the labour required to appropriate and produce commodities, was the sole source and measure of their value; or whether it was not partly derived from other causes, and partly only from labour. But an acquaintance with the circumstances which determine the value of commodities, in the different stages of society, is necessary to enable us to ascertain, with due precision, the laws which regulate their distribution.

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