ABSTRACT
The valuation of an object is nothing more or less than the affirmation, that it is in a certain degree of comparative estimation with some other specified object; and any other object possessed of value may serve as the point of comparison. Valuation is vague and arbitrary, when there is no assurance that it will be generally acquiesced in by others. The knowledge of the ground-work of the quality, value, or rather exchangeable value, leads to the perception of its origin. The items of social wealth are invested with value by the necessity of giving something to obtain them; and that something is productive exertion. Wealth is, in all countries, distributed in every degree of gradation, from the populous level of mediocrity to the solitary pinnacle of extreme affluence. In poor countries, objects of even the commonest use, and of inferior price, frequently exceed the means of a great proportion of the population.
