Indeed, no one can deplore more earnestly than the
Austrians themselves the cumbersome terminology
which seems to be necessitated by their analysis of
value and price. Bohm-Bawerk writes : " I frankly
confess that I would gladly exchange these pedantic
and clumsy expressions for terms more euphonious
and popular, if they could be got to indicate the
opposition referred to with even approximate cor-
rectness. But I have not been able to find such
expressions. The words Use Value and Exchange
Value are not suitable at all, because, as we shall
see, there is a Subjective Exchange Value.*

The source of the difficulty is here clearly indi-
cated. It is the existence of certain phenomena to
which Bohm-Bawerk has given the name " Subjec-
tive Exchange Value." I would, however, urge that
the elevation of this phenomenon into the same rank



* Positive Theory of Capital, p. 130.
63



64 VALUE AND DISTBIBUTION.
with Subjective Use and Objective Exchange Value
is unnecessary, and tends to obscure the important
distinction between the subjective and objective phe-
nomena which the Austrians have labored so zealously
to establish.
27. Subjective Exchange Value is not a Primary
Fhenomenon of Value. — First let us be entirely clear
as to what is here meant by Subjective Eb^change
Value. Let us assume that tobacco, when I smoke
it myself, has a marginal utility of 4. It may, how-
ever, happen that I can exchange the tobacco for
wheat with a marginal utility of 8. Under such cir-
cumstances the actual value of the tobacco will be 8.
