labour, at all times and places, may be said to be of equal value to the
labourer. In his ordinary state of health, strength, and spirits ; in the
ordinary degree of his skill and dexterity, he must always lay down the same
portion of his ease, his liberty, and his happiness. The price which he pays
must always be the same, whatever may be the quantity of goods which he
receives in return for it. Of these, indeed, it may sometimes purchase a
greater and sometimes a smaller quantity ; but it is their value which
varies, not that of the labour which purchases them. At all times and
places, that is dear which it is difficult to come at, or which it costs
much labour to acquire; and that cheap which is to be had easily, or with
very little labour. Labour alone, therefore, never varying in its own value,
is alone the ultimate and real standard by which the value of all
commodities can at all times and places be estimated and compared. It is
their real price; money is their nominal price only.

But though equal quantities of labour are always of equal value to the
labourer, yet to the person who employs him they appear sometimes to be of
greater, and sometimes of smaller value. He purchases them sometimes with a
greater, and sometimes with a smaller quantity of goods, and to him the
price of labour seems to vary like that of all other things. It appears to
him dear in the one case, and cheap in the other. In reality, however, it is
the goods which are cheap in the one case, and dear in the other.

In this popular sense, therefore, labour, like commodities, may be said to
have a real and a nominal price. Its real price may be said to consist in
the quantity of the necessaries and conveniencies of life which are given
for it ; its nominal price, in the quantity of money. The labourer is rich
or poor, is well or ill rewarded, in proportion to the real, not to the
nominal price of his labour.