Note 85 — Chapter VII

The issue appears to be shifted here. If an ultimate cause of value is being sought, it is certain that labor does not supply it for the monopolized goods; and if it be simply a measure of the amount of value embodied in the monopolized goods that is looked for, then it is clear that goods produced entirely by competitive labor (assuming that such goods exist, which I deny) can fulfill this function only by virtue of being themselves valuable—and that they serve this purpose no better than other goods into which a monopoly element enters. The doctrine here criticized goes back to Ricardo: "If the state charges a seignorage for coinage, the coined piece of money will generally exceed the value of the uncoined piece of metal by the whole seignorage charged, because it will require a greater quantity of labour, or, which is the same thing, the value of the produce of a greater quantity of labour, to procure it." (Italics mine.) Ricardo, Works, McCulloch edition, 1852, p. 213.