Natural Value by Friedrich Wieser Christian A. Malloch William Smart

Author:Friedrich Wieser , Christian A. Malloch , William Smart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Macmillan and Co.
Published: 1893-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

102 THE INDIVID UAL FA CTORS OF IMPUTA TION bk. ii i

duction goods; here personal want does not always create a demand. If land, of its own accord and without cultivation, were to bring forth fruits in superfluity, there would be no demand for agricultural implements. And likewise, on the other hand, if land refused to make any return, if all land were waste and barren, there would be no demand for agricultural implements; there could be no use for them. A demand for means of production arises only when, on the one hand, we are obliged to employ them or else go without what they produce; and when, on the other hand, we can employ them, inasmuch as we have at our disposal the neces-

Isary complementary goods. So long as the complementary goods are wanting, we can, at best, speak of a laterd demand; the demand is effective only when we have also acquired the complementary goods.^

It follows from this that the eflfective demand for means of production must vary, not only when there is a variation in personal want, but also when there is a variation in the quantity of complementary goods.^ In both directions we must examine the effect upon the imputation, and thus, in looking at demand in the case of production goods, we have a far more complicated causal connection than in the case of consumption goods. We shall find, however, that the law remains the same for both. The contribution imputable to production goods always varies with the demand, just as does the value of consumption goods. If demand increases, from whatever cause, so does the contribution, and, as demand sinks, the contribution sinks with it. To prove this in the shortest manner possible.

First: it may be granted that the eflfective demand rises when the abundance of complementary goods increases, personal want remaining the same. Suppose eg, that the amount of agricultural capital and available agricultural labour power increase, and that the effective demand for land also increases

^ See on this point Monger, p. 39.

* Compare with this Marshall's Prindplea, p. 663 :—" In the account given of the demand for the several agents of production, it was indicated that the ultimate demand for each depended on the co-operation of the others in raising the joint product of their labour ; or, to state the case even more broadly, that the demand for each is in a great measure governed by the supply of the others."—^./S:

thereby, inasmuch as latent demand becomes active; suppose, that is to say, that it is now and henceforth possible,—so far as depends on complementary goods,—to cultivate more land and more completely satisfy want. How will this afifect the calculation of agricultural return? Evidently there ate"again several cases which must be distinguished from each other. It may be that the ground will not permit of any further cultivation, so that, in spite of increased facilities in capital and labour, production cannot be extended,—as might readily happen with vine-growing land in a specially favourable situation.

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