ese values to
combine. From justice, which ought to be the foundation of society, he
concludes the necessity, and from general obedience of life to law the
possibility, of a determination of values. Even this value, thus
determined, will be a variable amount, a proportionate figure, similar
to the index which in the case of chemical elements gives their
combining weights. "But this value will none the less be strictly
fixed. Value may alter, but the law of values is unalterable; indeed,
the fact that value is capable of alteration only results from its
being subject to a law whose principle is essentially fluctuating, for
it is labour measured by time." (_Contradictions_, i., "On the Theory
of Value.") Value is thus brought into consideration within the
community which producers form among themselves by means of the
division of labour and exchange, the relation of the proportion of the
products which compose riches, and that which is specially termed the
value of a product is a formula which assigns a proportion of this
product in coins in the general wealth.

Leaving out of the question the moral arrangement of the world, which
even here has contributed to this definition of double meaning, we may
ask, how is this formula, which assigns in coins the proportion of the
product in the general wealth, reckoned? Proudhon has always appealed
only to the realisation of the idea through the actual circulation of
values on the one hand, and to the law-abiding character of nature on
the other. Upon the point of "realisation" we shall have something to
say later. But the law-abiding character of life is, however, just as
much an algebraical expression as the "proportion of the product."
Supposing both are not disputed, what follows, then? If I know the
exact formula for the direction and velocity of a projectile, shall I
now be able to protect myself from every bullet by merely getting out
of its way? The introduction of statistical methods into the general
formula for special values Proudhon has himself excluded as incorrect.
The question settles itself. Society goes on of its own
accord--_laissez aller, laissez faire_--everything remains in the old
way. In addition to this mistake, we find that there is in Proudhon's
mind great confusion with regard to the two ideas of time of labour
and value of labour.

"Adam Smith takes as a measure of value sometimes the time necessary
to produce a commodity and sometimes the value of lab