by Utility, and is sufficiently defined above and under that head (cp. UTILITY).

Value, Normal.-By this term is meant the value which tends to be established under the conditions of demand and supply existing in the case to which the term is applied. It is such as might, under those conditions, be maintained unaltered, and which would, if attained under those conditions, require some external influence to operate before deviation would result.

Scarcity

Value, Origin of.-The question of the origin of value has been keenly disputed. There is no doubt in any reasonable mind that value cannot exist without utility. Further, utility alone is not sufficient unless Scarcity or Difficulty of Attainment, two ways of indicating the same thing, be superadded. In the cases which are most frequent of occurrence, and most interesting to investigate as a result, such scarcity is limited by the available productive powers of the person or society concerned. The investigation of the causes of relative scarcity or abundance of commodities becomes an investigation of the conditions and cost of their production. As value exists in virtue not merely of the utility but also of the scarcity of the valuable object, to assign the origin of value entirely to one or the other of these alone is to give an insufficient account of such origin. Neither utility without scarcity nor scarcity without utility is sufficient to endow an object with value, but the two in combination. here means merely such a degree of scarcity as leaves unsatisfied some wants to which objects like the valuable object which is in question could minister. These wants, which remain without satisfaction, may or may not be urgent. The existence of some such, which, with a larger supply of the commodity at the disposal of the person feeling the want, might be satisfied, is all that is implied by saying that there is scarcity. Value, Stability of.-The value of a commodity is, as the preceding discussion shows, a relative term. It is great or small according to the relation existing between the wants which the said commodity could satisfy and the means available for satisfying such wants in addition to the commodity itself. In the sense of value-in-exchange, the value of the commodity is equally relative to the extent of want and the extent of the available means of satisfaction. The wants in question are now conceived of, not as those which can be directly satisfied by the consumption or use of the commodity, but such as might be satisfied by any of the indefinitely numerous kinds of commodity which might be obtained in exchange for it, in such quantity as its value enables them to be procured.

The value of the commodity may be said to be stable if, either by itself or by what can be procured in exchange for it, it can afford a utility which remains the same from one time to VOL. III

609

another. Stability of value, in the sense of stability of exchange-value, is generally meant to imply merely the capacity for procuring in exchange equal quantities of some one other commodity, or of other commodities in general. This last expression acquires definiteness through the calculation of INDEX-NUMBERS which are devised to procure a measure of the stability of value of money and hence of any commodity whose money-value is ascertained.

Value, Standard of. In comparing the values of different commodities, recourse is generally had to the expression of the value of each in terms of some one commodity chosen as a "standard of reference." This one commodity serves as a value-measurer, the value of any particular commodity being expressed by stating the quantity of the "standard" whose value is equal to that of some definite amount of the particular commodity; as when wheat is quoted at 45s. per quarter, the value of one quarter of wheat is stated as equal to the value of 45s. If we regard money simply as an instrument of exchange, this means an equality in value with whatever commodities 45s. will purchase. This reference of all values to one standard is especially convenient, and not only so, but necessary, when the values in question are values to different persons. These, though in themselves incommensurable, are brought to a possibility of comparison by the expression of each value in terms of the value of a definite quantity of the standard. The various quantities of the standard which serve as measures of the values of many commodities to many persons are directly comparable, and thus a comparison of wants which is indispensable to enable trade to be developed is rendered not only possible but easy. It is very obvious that stability of value is a highly desirable quality in the standard. The precious metals possess many qualities rendering them suitable for use as standards of value, including a very considerable degree of stability of value. For particular purposes various writers have proposed to use corn or labour as a standard, and a composite standard arrived at by determining the average changes in money-value of numerous representative commodities is presented in various indexnumbers. These may enable far better comparisons of values to be made over considerable periods of time than is possible by the simple comparison of money-values, and are constantly so used. The introduction of such a standard for common commercial use is, however, beset with many difficulties in addition to those which attend a satisfactory determination for historical purposes (see also STANDARD OF VALUE).

Value, Subjective and Objective.-The subjective value of a commodity is the importance which the commodity is considered to possess with reference to the satisfaction of desires

2 R

610

& constant

felt by a person; also called personal value. The objective value of a commodity is its capacity for producing some objective effect. The most important kind of objective value is objective exchange value, or the power a commodity possesses to procure some other commodity or commodities in exchange for itself. Value, Intrinsic. There is tendency to use the term value as if it implied some inherent property of the object to which it is applied. Bread, for instance, is supposed by some to possess an intrinsic value in virtue of its power to satisfy hunger. Such power, however, presupposes that the hunger exists. In view of the constant recurrence of hunger this seems a reasonable supposition, but if the supply of bread were renewed as frequently as hunger recurred, and in quantity more than sufficient to satisfy the hunger, some part of such supply would possess but slight, if any, value. The illustration may serve to indicate that value is not inherent in an object, but depends on the relation of the object to unsatisfied needs. This phrase intrinsic value' is also used sometimes to indicate such a distinction as that between the face value of a token coin and the value of the metal of which it is made, the latter being referred to as the intrinsic value of the coin. In these cases the desired distinction can probably be made more clearly by the use of other phrases (see also INTRINSIC VALUE). Value, Feeling of.-An expression related to the conception of personal or subjective value.

Value, Surplus.-Karl MARX (q.v.) in his theory of value adopts the view that value is wholly caused by cost of production, and that the necessary labour expended in that production is the only element which can impart value to the product. He asserts that, the value being determined by the amount of such necessary labour, the capitalist employer compels extra labour to be performed by the labourer while not increasing the recompense paid to the labourer. The extra product thus obtained is conceived of as being valued at the same rate as the other portion of the produce, and its value is denominated "surplus value." From such "surplus value' the payment of interest and profits is conceived to be made.

[All systematic treatises on economics contain of necessity a discussion of so fundamental a part of economic theory as the doctrine of value. No special reference need therefore be made, except to the exponents of the Austrian views. Menger, Grundsätze der Volkswirthschaftslehre. BöhmBawerk, Grundzüge der Theorie des wirthschaftlichen Güterwerths in Conrad's Jahrbücher, 1886; comp. the same author's Karl Marx and the close of his system, translated. Fisher Unwin, 1898.

-Wieser, Der natürliche Werth, besides other works referred to in an article in the Economic Journal, No. 1, March 1891, by Professor Wieser. See also AUSTRIAN SCHOOL; PROGRESS, INFLUENCE OF, on Value.]

A. W. F.

VAN HALL, FLORIS ADRIAN (1791-1866), an able Dutch statesman and financier, who distinguished himself principally by his action as minister of finance in re-establishing the disturbed credit of the state on a firm basis. As, in consequence of reckless and wasteful administration of the finances, the bankruptcy of the state was imminent, Van Hall carried, in 1844, notwithstanding a very sharp opposition, an act of the legislature for a voluntary loan of about £10,500.000, or, as an alternative if that loan were not fully subscribed, an extraordinary property and income tax of nearly £3,000,000. Fortunately the loan was subscribed, and the conversion of the 4 and 5 per cent debt into a 4 per cent loan followed, causing an economy of about £300,000 a year. These measures, together with the very considerable contributions of the Dutch Indian possessions, re-established the equilibrium of the finances.

To bring the monetary system of the kingdom into accordance with that of most civilised countries, who at that time employed the single silver standard, or at least used silver only, Van Hall put an end to the free coinage of gold, and replaced the double standard in 1847 by the single silver standard. He also promoted a revision of the tariff and navigation acts, and took, after his resignation, an active part in parliament as leader of the conservative party in the revision of the constitution, 1848.

Van Hall was again minister of finance in 1858, and carried a railway act prescribing the construction by the state of railways on a rather large scale; he then retired from public life.

Van Hall wrote: Lofrede op Johann de Will (1819).-On partijdige beschouwing van den toestand des koophandels binnen de Vereenigde Nederlanden (1820).-Lettre d'un Hollandais indépend ant à Lord Grey (1833).—Proeve van een onderzoek omtrent de schuld van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden (1840). VANDELEUR, J. S. See Co-OPERATIVE FARMING, and OWEN, ROBERT.

C. A. V. S.

VANDERLINT, JACOB, a Dutch merchant.

Author of a notable work published in London, 1734, under the title: Money answers all things: An Essay to make Money sufficiently plentiful amongst all Ranks of People and increase our foreign and domestick Trade, fill the empty house with inhabitants, encourage the Marriage State, lessen the number of Haukers and Pedlars, and in a great measure prevent giving long Credit and making bad debts in trade; Likewise showing the Absurdity of going to war about trade, and the most likely Method to prevent the clandestine exportation of our Wool, and also to reduce the National Debt and ease Taxes. Influenced by LOCKE, he in his turn was studied by the PHYSIOCRATS, and may be said to have initiated scientific socialism in England. The head title of his book

(v. Ecclesiastes, x. 19) is no doubt suggested by
Locke's use of it in Some Considerations
[on] ... Interest. The little work pretends, in
addition to its lengthy titular programme, to
give "an evident and clear account of the
Its
foundations of the trade of the world."
actual contents are mainly suggestions in outline,
having little to do with currency, but making for
a better distribution of property and the ameliora
Vanderlint
tion of the lower and middle classes.

has, it is true, a "quantity" theory (Prin. iv.) and faith in the favourable effect of plenty of money on trade (Prin. viii.), but he quickly passes on to his main topics :-the desirability of increase in the national output of raw produce, and of increased and more widely diffused consumption. To effect this more land should be enclosed, with due regard to common rights, and more cultivators attracted to it. The latter would multiply if all taxes on commodities were removed. There would then be more consumption, more raw material produced, more demand for land. By the rise in rents that would ensue the landowner might be made the sole tax-payer. Increase of consumption would give luxury its "natural and proper bounds," luxury being the effect of decay of trade and not its cause. For, decay of trade leaving the comparative few in ever greater affluence, the relatively poor majority run to over-extravagance, i.e. luxury, in emulating their "magnificent living."

Trade, he held, should be "unrestrained," all prohibitions cutting off so much employment. 66 comNations should develop the production of modities peculiar to them" as "a foundation of commerce, and by the quantity and quality of such produce be able to defy rival imports without protective legislation. Yet "every nation ought to keep trade on such foot as always on the whole to have the balance in their favour." Further points of interest are Vanderlint's theory of wages as determined by the price of necessaries, of population, and of the duty of collective afforestation.

Vanderlint's anticipations of socialism may be sought in his conviction that the hardships of the poor were unnecessary and remediable by wise and just measures, in his advocating the theory of the natural right of every man to sufficient land to enable him to live and support a family, and in his recommendation that new enclosures should be made and owned by communal authority, not by individuals. As if anticipating ROUSSEAU, he held that, whereas a state of civil government with wealth adequately diffused was far preferable to a state of nature, yet "if the bulk of mankind be made miserable by the oppression of the rest, as they undoubtedly are. . . such an unhappy state... is worse than a state of nature itself.' [See Cossa, Introd. to Pol. Ec., Eng. trans., Macmillan, 1893, p. 245, as to Vanderlint's views C. A. F. on the SINGLE TAX.]

A

611

A. C. f.

VANSITTART, NICHOLAS, LORD BEXLEY (1766-1851), son of Henry Vansittart, sometime governor of Bengal, took his M.A. degree at Oxford in 1791, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn, where he became a bencher in 1812. He was M.P. for Hastings in 1796, and in 1801 was sent as minister plenipotentiary with Parker and Nelson to Copenhagen to endeavour to detach Denmark from the Northern Alliance. In April 1801 he was appointed joint-secretary to the treasury by Addington. Between 1802 and 1812 he sat for Old Sarum, In 1804 he was and afterwards for Harwich.

a lord of the treasury in Ireland and in the following year secretary to the lord lieutenant. He was reappointed joint-secretary to the treasury, 1806-7, under Grenville's administration; and in 1812 became a cabinet minister, succeeding Perceval as chancellor of the exchequer. He held this office during Lord Liverpool's administration until January 1823, when he retired, and was raised to the peerage. He remained in the cabinet as chancellor of the He died duchy of Lancaster until 1828. 8th February 1851, in his 85th year.

Vansittart was a poor debater, with feeble voice and indistinct utterance, but he at one time had a certain financial reputation, and his gentle manners and benevolent character secured the attention which his natural abilities were unable to command. The eleven years during which he was chancellor of the exchequer were from a financial point of view perhaps the most critical England ever saw, but Vansittart never showed dexterity either in imposing or in remitting taxation. He introduced no measure of first importance. He was not responsible for the repeal of the income tax in 1816, the surrendering of the war malt tax, nor the return to cash payments. His resolutions on the report of the BULLION COMMITTEE have not added to his fame, and a praiseworthy scheme for

converting the navy five per cents to four per cents in 1822 was coupled with an objectionable proposal to farm the pensions known as the "dead weight annuity." He introduced alterations into the SINKING FUND (q.v.) far from successful. was simply an honest and industrious clerk, finally dismissed from his office with little ceremony.

He

Reflections on the Propriety of an Immediate Conclusion of Peace, London, 1793, 8vo (wellwritten defence of the war as regards its effects upon public prosperity).-A reply to the Letter addressed to Mr. Pitt by Jasper Wilson, 1794, 8vo.-Letter to Mr. Pitt on the conduct of the Bank Directors, 1796, 8vo.-Inquiry into the state of the Finances of Great Britain in answer to Mr. Morgan's facts, 1796, 8vo (the last three are in defence of Pitt).—Substance of two Speeches, 7th and 13th May 1811, in Committee of the Whole House on the Bullion Committee Report, 1811, 8vo.-Outlines of a plan of Finance proposed to be submitted to Parliament, 1813, 8vo (the "Sinking Fund"; repr. in the Pamphleteer, i. 255; discussed by F. Silver, ib. ii. 313-321).—Substance of Speech comprising the Finance Resolutions for 1819, 1819, 8vo (ib. xv. pp. 15-26).

[Gent. Mag., April 1851, p. 431-432 and frequent references in Ricardo's letters.-Annual Register, 1851.-Ld. Colchester's Diary, 1861, 3 vols.-Sir S. Walpole's History of England from 1815, 187886, 5 vols. 8vo.]

H. R. T.

VARRO, M. TERENTIUS (B.C. 116-28). He fought in the wars against Mithridates and afterwards under Pompeius. After Pharsalia he was pardoned by Cæsar and employed by him in collecting a library for public use. He was reputed the most learned of the Romans, and was the author of 490 books. Except mere fragments, his treatises De Lingua Latina (imperfect) and De Re Rustica alone remain. The latter is a work of a very practical nature, giving directions for farming which are so clear and comprehensive as to show that Varro wrote from actual experience. In the first book he deals with the art of cultivation; its instruments and methods; the proper seasons for operations; the culture of vines, olives, and other crops; and the slave or animal labour employed. In the second book he treats of the peasantry (c. x.) and of the larger animals, of wool and other produce. Of the third book the chief subjects are fowls, pigeons, peacocks, fish-ponds, and game.

[The text is given in a convenient form by H. Keil's edition, Leipzig (B. G. Teubner), 1889.C. T. Cruttwell, Hist. of Roman Lit.] R. H.

VASCO, GIOVAN BATTISTA (1733-1796), born at Turin, was a priest and doctor of law he taught theology at the university of Cagliari for some time, and also cultivated natural science and political economy. He was continuously persecuted for his liberal ideas, and died in great poverty. He left several works on economic subjects, the most important being one on corporations and another on begging.

In the first, written for the prize competition at the Academy of Verona (see MARACHIO), Vasco

advocates the utmost economic liberty and the dissolution of trade-gilds, quoting TURGOT and A. SMITH. Vasco studies, from a liberal-minded point of view, the evils arising from the regulation of occupations, and shows that governments can, even without the existence of trade-gilds, prevent certain disadvantages which may arise from freedom in these matters; he advocates absolute liberty in agriculture, manufacture, and trade. The writings of Vasco are profound and clear, and, though he adheres to the doctrines of the well-known economists of his day, his observations have a practical basis.

Vasco's book on mendicants is also noteworthy considering when it was written. In it he studies the causes of begging, and makes practical suggestions for simplifying the relief system for those incapable of work, and eliminating the causes which leave capable men unemployed and a burden on public charities. The remedies Vasco proposes, though they have the merit of simplicity, were not adequate even for his own time, far less so for the present day.

[Delle università di arti e mestieri, 1793.Mémoire sur les causes de la mendicité et sur les moyens de la supprimer, 1790 (in Custodi's collection). [Alberti, Le corporazioni d'arti e mestieri, etc., 1888.-Balletti, L'abate Giuseppe Ferrari Bonini e le riforme civili della beneficenza nel secolo XVIII., 1886).]

U. R.

VAUBAN, SEBASTIAN LE PRESTRE, Seigneur de, Maréchal de France (1633-1707). One would hardly expect a distinguished general to rank among the economists of his time. Such, however, is the place in history of Vauban, the celebrated marshal of France, who, after besieging fifty fortified places and receiving eight wounds, found leisure to write La Dime Royale (1707), an erudite economic work much in advance of his time, and distinguished both by accuracy of method and breadth of view.

Though the book was published anonymously, and only a few copies issued, Vauban had to submit to the mortification of seeing it "pilloried" by the parliament, while he himself incurred the displeasure of the king. A few weeks later he died. The book contained no subversive doctrines. It is only a plan for financial reform, and aims at substituting for every other impost a proportional tax on every description of income :— on income derived from landed property (which should be levied on the raw produce, as was the case of ecclesiastical tithe), on income from house property, profits arising from manufactures and business, salaries and pensions of officials, government stocks, and also the wages of artisans and labourers,-in short, a kind of income tax. The amount to be raised by this tax, like the income tax, should vary according to the requirements of the treasury. Vauban considered that 10 per cent should be the maximum, never to be exceeded, and proposed 6'66 per cent as a normal rate. On the wages of artizans and labourers he would only demand, on account of the frequency of slack seasons against which they find it difficult to bear up, a rate of 3.33 per cent-"subject to being doubled in case of great necessity of the state."

66

thing is exchanged for money or if it be exchanged for another thing, the measure of that exchange is how much money either of the things exchanged is conceived to be worth," and should be of value, not common, easily stamped, and divisible, durable, and gener

not on wine drunk at home, so as a little to check the expenses of the peasants who on Sundays and fête-days spend their time in taverns, and "to oblige the more steady of them to stay at home."

All this, according to the estimate of the author, who calculated each category of taxes with all the accuracy possible at the time when he lived, should supply 116,822,500 livres (French), a revenue sufficient, he thought, for public requirements, while in time of war it might at a moment's notice be raised by 2 or 3 tenths.

The value of Vauban's book lies not so much in

his plans of financial reform-though, considering his period, they are remarkable-as in the mass of facts, figures, and observations of all kinds. These, as he said himself, are the outcome "not of imaginary observations and guess-work, but of exact investigation and careful statistical enquiry,"

which render the book a document essential to understanding the economic history of France. In it abuses of all kinds are denounced with a boldness which sufficiently explains the anger it excited among all those who benefited by these abuses. Passages such as the following would obviously not find favour with a king like Louis XIV.: "If the people were not oppressed so severely they would marry more freely; they would be better clothed and better fed; they would work with more vigour and heart if they saw that they retained the main part of their gains. No better service can be done to monarchs than to remind them continually of this truth."

To Vauban's honour, he was one of those few at the court of Louis XIV. who protested against the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He did this by a memorandum in which, with remarkable clearness, he called attention to the economic effects which would result from this measure to the injury of France and to the advantage of foreign countries.

C. G.

VAUGHAN, RICE (17th century), son of Henry Vaughan of Machynlleth, Montgomeryshire, barrister since 1638 of Gray's Inn, registrar of the sequestration commission which sat 164360, prothonotary (1653), and judge-assistant (1659) in North Wales, and imprisoned for high treason "without pen and ink" 1665 et seq. wrote (1635) A Discourse of Coin and Coinage, pub. 1675, posthumously, by Henry Vaughan (the poet ?), and reprinted by M'Culloch (1856) in A Select Collection of Tracts on Money, which is the first historical monograph in English on money. He knows that money means general purchasing power, it is "a pledge," "it serves actually to no use almostpotentially to all uses," and is the medium of

As for value "Use and delight, or the opinion of them, are the true causes why all things have a value" (value in use), "but the proportion of that value. . . is wholly governed by "rarity and abundance" (value in exchange) and therefore "must needs differ in several times and places," and he defines the "intrinsic" value of coin as its "proportion to other things valued by them." Doubtless he should, like W. POTTER (1650), have added after "abundance," "mobility"; and HOBBES'S (1651) definition of the function of money is more clearly expressed; and his arguments against "raising the denomination of "money,' and against the par of exchange, came from MISSELDEN (1622); but he avoided the error which tainted even Misselden and MUN (1621), that raising money attracted the precious metals (pp. 77-86), substituting the truth that raising silver without raising gold money will attract silver (p. 88). He does not discuss companies, banks, usury nor those physiological metaphors about money which Hobbes derived from MILLES, Misselden, etc.

"

The book on coin was written while Charles I., Louis XIII., and Ferdinand II. (p. 118) reigned, and before certain Dutch and French proclamations (p. 19) were repealed; i.e. between 1625 and 1636. In Plea for the Common Laws (1651), he opposed Hugh Peters's plan of law reform, and in Certain Proposals (1652), made unimportant counterproposals; his Practica Walliae, published (1672) posthumously by T. M. (Manley ?), is merely professional; and his Manner of the Proceedings in the Courts of Great Sessions in ... North Wales (1653) is the first chapter of it.

J. D. R.

VAUGHAN, ROBERT, D.D. (1795-1868), congregationalist minister at Worcester, 1819, and Kensington, 1825-43, historical professor of University College, London, 1830-43, principal and theological professor of the Lancashire Independent College, 1843-57, founder and editor of the British Quarterly, 1845-66:

Wrote several English histories of fair merit in which he usually set apart chapters on "Social history," which he called "a species of science." His one work on social philosophy, The Age of Great Cities: or Modern Society viewed in its Relation to Intelligence, Morals, and Religion (1843), illustrates the thesis that politics, science, and literature are derived from "the state of society" in any epoch, and that our society is essentially civic, with happy quotations from Samuel LAING and Harriet MARTINEAU, with an able argument that the dangers of town life are often exaggerated, and always outweighed by its superior opportunities for good; and with the following epigram in answer