It will be seen by the extract which I have made in page from the Wealth of Nations, that though Adam Smith fully recognized the principle, that the proportion between the quantities of labour necessary for acquiring different objects, is the only circumstance which can afford any rule for our exchanging them for one another, yet he limits its application to that early and rude state of society, which precedes both the accumulation of stock and the appropriation of land; as if, when profits and rent were to be paid, they would have some influence on the relative value of commodities, independent of the mere quantity of labour that was necessary to their production.