When the water-boat comes to supply my ship, were I to pay in
proportion to the _absolute utility_ of the water, my whole fortune
would not be sufficient. But I pay only for the trouble taken. If more
is required, I can get another boat to furnish it, or finally go and
get it myself. The water itself is not the subject of the bargain, but
the labor required to obtain the water. This point of view is so
important, and the consequences that I am going to draw from it so
clear, as regards the freedom of international exchanges, that I will
still elucidate my idea by a few more examples.
The alimentary substance contained in potatoes does not cost us very
dear, because a great deal of it is attainable with little work. We
pay more for wheat, because, to produce it, Nature requires more labor
from man. It is evident that if Nature did for the latter what she
does for the former, their prices would tend to the same level. It is
impossible that the producer of wheat should permanently gain more
than the producer of potatoes. The law of competition cannot allow it.
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