Note 36 — Chapter IV · CRITICISM OF THE THEORIES OF ADAM SMITH.

P. 49. Torrens, in his Essay on the Production of Wealth, has worked out with great pains a form of proof of this proposition. It is exhibited in a series of dialogues between primitive producers to show that an exchange of goods at a ratio out of proportion to labor-costs is incompatible with recognized motives of trade. His proof is good enough under the tacit assumptions which he makes, including all the conditions of the perfect type of fictitious primitive society used by classical writers.