Note 253 — Chapter XI · THE ULTIMATE RELATION OF COST TO VALUE

In this illustration the marginal cost is five times as high as the “total cost” or total average cost of a bushel, but this ratio could have no significance even if the data of our illustration were approximately true with respect to the direct labor cost of wheat on good land, for we have eliminated from the real total labor cost all of what Ricardo called the “indirect” labor cost, by eliminating capital.