CHAP.   I.  VALUE.  11

trary,  has  scarce  any  value  in  use  ;  but  a  very  great  quantity
of  other  goods  may  frequently  be  had  in  exchange  for  it."*

Thus,  then,  we  perceive,  that  the  words  wealth,  property,
value,  have  all  a  more  general  and  a  limited  signification,
the  confused  and  indiscriminate  use  of  which  must  neces-
sarily occasion  endless  misunderstandings,  contradiction,  and
error,  in  the  doctrines  and  reasonings  of  political  economists,
until  they  are  properly  defined  and  settled,  and  restricted  to
one  sense.  In  the  dictionary  of  our  language,  the  sense  of
these  words  must  of  course  continue  to  be  retained  and  ex-
pounded in  its  full  extent ;  but,  as  admitted  into  the  voca-
bulary of  Political  Economy,  they  must  be  rigidly  confined
to  their  more  limited  signification,  as  defined  and  explained
in  the  preceding  pages.  The  word  value  must  always  be
restricted  to  the  meaning  of  exchangeable  value ;  and  the
words  property  and  wealth,  whilst  they  are  to  be  uniformly
understood  as  synonymous  between  themselves,  are  at  the
same  time  equally  to  be  understood  as  equivalent  to  the  ex-
pression or  definition  given  of  the  latter  term — vendible
property.-f*


*  Wealth  of  Nations,  book  i.  chap.  4.
