subject of supply and demand. Why, then, put this up as two separate questions? This would be unimportant, but because of the frequency with which, as we shall have occasion to see later, Marx-critics employ this cheap manœuvre of "criticism." It is common practice among them to repeat the same matter in different ways, in such a manner as if they were stating separate objections, in order to make a "showing" by piling up a great quantity of objections.
Supply and demand is, as we have seen, not a property of "good" but an accident of its existence. It is not something contained in it, nor is it anything in any way connected with its production. Its qualities and properties as a "good" are not in any way affected by the conditions of its supply and demand. There is no "common something" in goods which may be called their conditions of supply and demand, for no good contains in itself the conditions of its supply, and its demand can not only not be contained within itself, but it presupposes its absence. Logically, therefore, it could certainly not be said that being the subject of supply and demand could be the "common something" which is the source and measure of value. There is another good logical reason why supply and demand could be neither the source nor the measure of value. The proposition that value depends on supply and demand seems such a very simple one, so much a matter of "common sense," that few take the trouble to inquire into its real meaning. A careful examination of the matter will show, however, that this is logically impossible. Let us see what it is: Supply and demand work in inverse directions; when the supply increases value diminishes, and when the supply diminishes value increases; and the reverse is true of demand. Now, let us suppose a condition (the ordinary condition for most goods), where the supply and demand are normal, that is, cover each other. What should the value of the commodity then be? Evidently, nil; for the two factors working upon it in opposite directions, the supply and the demand being equal, neutralize each other, balance each other. But as
