This
was no elliptical expression, meaning that the "results of labor
constitute the riches of the people." No; these theorists intended to
say, that it is the _intensity_ of labor which measures riches; and
the proof of this is that from step to step, from restriction to
restriction, they forced on the United States (and in so doing
believed that they were doing well) to give to the procuring of, for
instance, a certain quantity of iron, double the necessary labor. In
England, iron was then at $20; in the United States it cost $40.
Supposing the day's work to be worth $2.50, it is evident that the
United States could, by barter, procure a ton of iron by eight days'
labor taken from the labor of the nation. Thanks to the restrictive
measures of these gentlemen, sixteen days' work were necessary to
procure it, by direct production. Here then we have double labor for
an identical result; therefore double riches; and riches, measured not
by the result, but by the intensity of labor. Is not this pure and
unadulterated Sisyphism?
That there may be nothing equivocal, these gentlemen carry their idea
still farther, and on the same principle that we have heard them call
the intensity of labor _riches_, we will find them calling the
abundant results of labor and the plenty of everything proper to the
satisfying of our wants, _poverty_.
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