after begun (I believe) under the patronage of the Godolphin family. From this era, when Arab velocity for a short burst had been inoculated upon English "bottom," or enduring energy, the Newmarket racer rose to a price previously unheard of in the annals of the horse. So low, however, was the affirmative standard at this period in England, so little had the latent perfections of the animal (the affirmative value) been developed, that of these matchless Arabians, sold on the terms of including the romantically gorgeous appointments for both horse and rider, even the finest was offered for five hundred guineas, and all three together for a thousand. This price had reference (as also in the case of the rhinoceros) exclusively to affirmative value.19 higher than eighteen Perhaps thus: "My The price does not the value derived from PARADISE LOST.- Were you (walking with a foreigner in London) to purchase for eighteen pence a new copy of this poem, suppose your foreign friend to sting your national pride by saying: "Really, it pains me to see the English putting so slight a value upon their great poet as to rate his greatest work no pence,” -how would you answer? friend, you mistake the matter. represent the affirmative value, the power of the poem to please or to exalt; that would be valued by some as infinite, irrepresentable by money; and yet the resistance to its reproduction might be less than the price of a breakfast." Now here, the ordinary law of price exposes itself at once. It is the power, the affirmative worth, which creates a fund for any price at all; but it is the resistance, the negative worth, or what we call the cost, which determines how much shall be taken from that potential fund. In bibliographic records, there are instances of scholars selling a landed estate equal to an annual livelihood for ever, in order to obtain a copy of one single book, viz. an ARISTOTLE. At this day, there are men whose estimate of Aristotle is not at all less. Having long since reached his lowest point of depression from the influence of sciolism and misconception, for at least fifty years Aristotle has been a rising author. But does any man pay an estate in exchange for Aristotle as now multiplied? Duval's in folio may be had for two guineas; the elder edition of Sylburgius in quarto may be had (according to our own juvenile experience) for ten guineas; and the modern Bipont by Buhle, only that it is unfinished, may be had for less than three. There is the reason for the difference between former purchasers and modern purchasers. The resistance is lowered; but the affirmative value may, for anything that is known, be still equal in many minds to that which it was in elder days, and in some minds we know that it is. The fair way to put this to the test would be to restore the elder circumstances. Then the book was a manuscript; printing was an undiscovered art; so that merely the resistance value was much greater, since it would cost a much larger sum to overcome that resistance where the obstacle was so vast a mass of manual labor, than where the corresponding labor in a compositor would multiply, by the pressman's aid, into a thousand copies, and thus divide the cost amongst a thousand purchasers. But this was not all. The owner of a manuscript would not suffer it to be copied. He knew the worth of his prize; it had a monopoly value. And what is that? Monopoly value is affirmative value carried to extremity. It is the case where you press to the ultimate limit upon the desire of a bidder to possess the article. It is no longer a question, For how little might it be afforded? You do not suffer him to put that question. You tell him plainly, that although he might have it copied for forty pounds, instead of sinking upon the original manuscript a perpetual estate yielding forty pounds annually, you will not allow it to be copied. Consequently you draw upon that fund which, in our days, so rarely can be drawn upon; viz. the ultimate esteem for the object, -the last bidding a man will offer under the known alternative of losing it. This alternative rarely exists in our days. It is rarely in the power of any man to raise such a question. Yet sometimes it is; and we will cite a case which is curious, in illustration. In 1812 occurred the famous Roxburghe sale, in commemoration of which a distinguished club was subsequently established in London. It was a library which formed the subject of this sale,—and in the series of books stood one which was perfectly unique in affirmative value. This value was to be the sole force operating on the purchaser; for as to the negative value, estimated on the resistance to the multiplication of copies, it was impossible to assign any: no price would overcome that resistance. The book was the VALDARFER* BOCCACCIO. It contained, not all the works of that author, but his Decameron, - and, strange enough, it was not a manuscript, but a printed copy. The value of the book lay in these two peculiarities: 1st, it was asserted that all subsequent editions had been castrated with regard to those passages which reflected too severely on the Papal Church; 2dly, the edition, as being incorrigible in that respect, had been so largely destroyed, that, not without reason, the Roxburghe copy was believed to be unique. In fact, the book had not been seen during the two previous centuries; so that it was at length generally held to be a nonentity. And the biddings went on as they would - *Valdarfer was the printer. do for the Wandering Jew, in case he should suddenly turn up as a prize-subject for life insurances. The contest soon rose buoyantly above the element of little men. It lay between two "top-sawyers," the late Lord Spencer and Lord Blandford; and finally was knocked down to the latter for two thousand two hundred and forty pounds, at a time when five per cent was obtained everywhere, and readily, for money. It illustrates the doctrine on which we are now engaged, that the purchaser some few years later, when Duke of Marlborough, and in personal embarrassments, towards which he could draw no relief from plate that was an heirloom, or from estates that were entailed, sold the book to his old competitor Lord Spencer for one thousand guineas. Nothing is more variable than the affirmative value of objects which ground it chiefly upon rarity. It is exceedingly apt to pall upon possession. In this case there was a secondary value, the book was not only rare, but was here found in its integrity: this one copy was perfect: all others were mutilated. But still such a value, being partly a caprice, and in the extremest sense a pretium affectionis, or fancy price, fluctuates with the feelings or opinions of the individual; and, even when it keeps steady, it is likely to fluctuate with the buyer's fortunes. On the other hand, where a pretium affectionis is not without a general countersign from society, we do not find that it fluctuates at all. The great ITALIAN MASTERPIECES OF PAINTING have long borne an affirmative value (i. e. a value founded on their pre-eminence, not on the cost of producing); and that value pushed to the excess of a monopoly, continually growing more intense. It would be useless now to ask after the resistance price: because, if that could be ascertained, it would be a mere inoperative curiosity. Very possible it is that Leonardo da Vinci may have spent not more than £150 in producing his fresco of the Last Supper. But, were it possible to detach it from the walls of the convent refectory which it emblazons, the picture would command in London a king's ransom; and the Sistine Chapel embellishments of Michael Angelo, probably two such ransoms within a week. Such jewels are now absolutely unique, - they are secure from repetition; notorious copies would not for a moment enter into competition. It is very doubtful if artists of power so gigantic will reappear for many centuries; and the sole deduction from their increasing value is the ultimate frailty of their materials. SALMON is another instructive case. At present it is said pretty generally to bear the average price of fifteen pence a pound;* and this price is doubtless the resistance value. But, if the price should ever come to represent the affirmative or power value, it might easily rise considerably higher. There are many men who would prefer one pound of salmon to four of beef; and up to that level, if the stress should ever lie on a man's intrinsic esteem for salmon, it might ascend easily. But it could not ascend very much higher; because a limit is soon reached at which it would always be pulled up suddenly by some other commodity of the same class in still higher esteem. A majority of palates prefer turbot, i. e. true turbot, not the rubbish which passes for such. And vicarious articles, possibly even superior substitutes, will generally avail to fix a limit on the maximum side, beyond which few articles will be pushed even by the severest strain upon their affirmative qualities; that is, by the situation where the question ceases entirely to the seller, What can you * Since this was written, a Dutch competition in the markets of London has reduced the price. |