ners in that case are liable to be furnished for
what they are worth for cold suppers.

If any article of commerce, like wheat, has its highest utility in one way
of meeting wants, as in bread, that utility will have a strong influence
upon value as long as the supply of wheat is not too great for this want.
If the supply of wheat should be so great that only a small portion could
be used for bread, other utilities would be sought. It would be used for
feeding hens, and perhaps for cattle feed. If still the amount is too
great to be consumed, it might be used for starch. In this case the least
useful portion is likely to furnish the estimate of value for the whole.
Both the raiser of wheat and the user will consider the lowest use as the
probable basis for sale.

Before the opening of the Erie canal a farmer in northern Ohio drew a load
of wheat twelve miles in hope of a market. The dealer said: "It isn't
worth anything, since nobody has any use for it. If you had a load of
sand, I could pay you for that, to fill the mud-hole in front of my
store." Since the utility of some wheat was nothing, the value of all
wheat tended to nothing. On the other hand, if wheat is scarce in the
community, it will be used only to meet the wants of the delicate or the
fastidious, whose comfort and life may depend upon it. In that case its
general value will be estimated by its higher utility, whatever other use
it is put to. That is called a final utility, which, in any particular
case, is the lowest use implied in consuming the supply. And this final
utility is the only one influencing the estimate of value.

It is possible, therefore, that the total utility of anything, like a
paper of tacks, for instance, may be greatly increased, since it has
indefinitely more uses than when tacks were first made. Yet the supply of
tacks is so enormous that to consume them we must use them for trifling
purposes; and therefore their value is a trifle. When we have water to
throw away, its value is nothing. When water is limited to culinary uses,
its value is considerable. When water is sufficient only to slake extreme
thirst, its value is beyond price. Even the prospect of a future supply
diminishes the utility of any commodity, since time is an important
element in satisfaction. Thus a store of potatoes in early spring, however
well preserved, has its final utility lowered, and therefore its value
lessened, by the prospect of new potatoes.

On the