Physiocracy

Value consists in the exchange relation between one thing and another, between a given amount of one product and a given amount of another.

Le Trasne, De l'intérêt social, Physiocrate, Paris, 1846.

End footnote.

A relation constantly changing with time and place.

For the pole of the commodity owner it is a sale, from the opposite pole of the money owner it is a purchase.

In other words, a sale is a purchase, C to M is also M to C. Footnote, quote, Toute vente est achat, every sale is a purchase, end quote.

Dr. Quesnay, Dialogue sur le commerce et le travail des artisans, Physiocrates edition dere, premiere partie, Paris, 1846, page 170.

Or as Quesnay in his Maxime generales puts it, vendre et acheter, to sell is to buy, end footnote.

End quote Value consists in the exchange relation between one thing and another, between a given amount of one product and a given amount of another.

Le Trasne, De l'intérêt social, Physiocrate, Paris, 1846 End footnote A relation constantly changing with time and place.

Hence exchange value appears to be something accidental and purely relative, and consequently an intrinsic value, i.e. an exchange value that is inseparably connected with, inherent in, commodities, seems a contradiction in terms.

Footnote Quote Nothing can have an intrinsic value.