Then we must seek the amount of wages to be paid between infinity on the one hand and nothing on the other, at an equal distance from each, since all rights and liberties are entitled to equal respect; in other words, it is not the intrinsic value, but the relative value, of the thing sold that needs to be fixed.

The question grows simpler: what is this relative value?
To what reward does a poem like the "Iliad" entitle its author?
The first business of political economy, after fixing its definitions, was the solution of this problem; now, not only has it not been solved, but it has been declared insoluble.

According to the economists, the relative or exchangeable value of things cannot be absolutely determined; it necessarily varies.
"The value of a thing," says Say, "is a positive quantity, but only for a given moment.

It is its nature to perpetually vary, to change from one point to another.

Nothing can fix it absolutely, because it is based on needs and means of production which vary with every moment.