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亚当·斯密的《国富论》在批判封建残余和重商主义统治政策的基础上，论证了自由主义体制下如何促进生产力的增长和如何实现市民社会全面富裕的问题。亚当·斯密首次把价值法则作为其经济体制的基础，将劳动分工和资本积累作为发展社会生产力的基础，全面展开了他的理论阐述。这里选了第一篇关于商品的两种价格一章。
Every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of human life. But after the division of labour has once thoroughly taken place, it is but a very small part of these with which a man’s own labour can supply him. The far greater part of them he must derive from the labour of other people, and he must be rich or poor according to the quantity of that labour which he can command, or which he can afford to purchase. The value of any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, but to exchange it for other commodities,is equal to the quantity of labour which it enables him to purchase or command. Labour, therefore, is the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities.
一个人是富是贫，要看他能取得必需品、舒适品和娱乐品的程度如何。但是，自从各个部门的分工确立之后，一个人依靠自己的劳动能够取得的只是这些物品中的极小部分，极大部分必须仰给他人的劳动；所以他是富是贫，就要看他能够支配或买到的劳动量有多大。因此，任何一种商品，对于占有这种商品而不打算自己使用或消费，却打算用它交换其他商品的人来说，它的价值等于这个商品能够买到或支配的劳动量。由此看来，劳动是衡量一切商品的交换价值的真实的尺度。
The real price of every thing, what every thing really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it. What every thing is really worth to the man who has acquired it, and who wants to dispose of it or exchange it for something else, is the toil and trouble which it can save to himself, and which it can impose upon other people. What is bought with money or with goods is purchased by labour,as much as what we acquire by the toil of our own body. That money or those goods indeed save us this toil. They contain the value of a certain quantity of labour which we exchange for what is supposed at the time to contain the value of an equal quantity. Labour was the first price,the original purchase—money that was paid for all things. It was not by gold or by silver, but by labour, that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased; and its value, to those who possess it, and who want to exchange it for some new productions, is precisely to the quantity of labour which it can enable them to purchase or command.
任何一个物品的真实价格，即取得这个物品在实际上所需付出的代价，乃是获得它的辛苦和麻烦。对于已得此物但愿用以交换他物的人来说，它的真正价值，等于因占有它而能自己免除并转加到别人身上去的辛苦和麻烦。以货币或货物购买物品，就是用劳动购买，正如我们用自己的劳动取得一样。此等货币或货物，使我们能够免除相当的劳动。它们包含着一定量劳动的价值，我们就用这一定量的劳动去同假定在当时包含着同量劳动的价值的东西相交换。劳动是第一性价格，是用以购买一切货物的最初代价。世界上的一切财富原先都不是用金或银而是用劳动购买的；这些财富的价值，对于占有它们并想用它们交换什么新产品的人来说，恰好等于他能买到或支配的劳动量。
Wealth, as Mr. Hobbes says, is power. But the person who either acquires, or succeeds to a great fortune, does not necessarily acquire or succeed to any political power, either civil or military. His fortune may, perhaps, afford him the means of acquiring both, but the mere possession of that fortune does not necessarily convey to him either. The power which that possession immediately and directly conveys to him, is the power of purchasing: a certain command over all the labour, or over all the produce of labour which is then in the market. His fortune is greater or less,precisely in proportion to the extent of this power;or to the quantity either of other men’s labour, or what is the same thing, of the produce of other men’s labour, which it enables him to purchase or command. The exchangeable value of every thing mustalways be precisely equal to the extent of this power which it conveys to its owner.
正如霍布斯先生所说：财富就是权力；但是，获得或继承了大宗财产的人，不一定因此就得到民政的或军事的政治权力，他的财产，也许可以提供他一种获得政权的手段，但单有财产未必就能给他政权。财富直接提供给他的权力，无非是购买的权力；这是一种支配当时市场上有的一切他人劳动或者说他人劳动的一切产品的权力。他的财富的多少同这个权力的大小恰成比例。换言之，财富的大小，同他所能够支配的他人劳动量成比例，或者同样可以说，同他能够买到的他人劳动的产品成比例。一种物品的交换价值，必然恰等于这物品对其所有者所提供的支配劳动的权力。
But though labour be the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities, it is not that by which their value is commonly estimated.It is often difficult to ascertain [1] the proportion between two different quantities of labour. The time spent in two different sorts of work willnot always alone determine this proportion. Thedifferent degrees of hardship endured, and of ingenuity [2] exercised, must likewise be taken intoaccount. There may be more labour in an hour’shard work than in two hours’ easy business; or inan hour’s application to a trade which it cost tenyears labour to learn, than in a month’s industryat an ordinary and obvious employment. But itis not easy to find any accurate measure either ofhardship or ingenuity. In exchanging indeed thedifferent productions of different sorts of labourfor one another, some allowance is commonlymade for both. It is adjusted, however, not byany accurate measure, but by the higgling [3] and bargaining of the market, according to that sort of rough equality which though not exact,is sufficient for carrying on the business of common life.
劳动虽是一切商品交换价值的真实尺度，但一切商品的价值，通常不是按劳动估定的。要确定两个不同的劳动量的比例，往往很困难。两种不同工作所费去的时间，往往不是决定比例的唯一因素，它们的不同困难程度和精巧程度，也须加以考虑。一个钟头的困难工作，比两个钟头的容易工作，也许包含有更多的劳动量；需要十年学习的工作做一小时，比普通业务做一个月所含的劳动量也可能更多。但是，困难程度和精巧程度的准确尺度是不容易找到的。诚然，在交换不同劳动的不同产品时，通常都在一定程度上考虑到上述困难程度和精巧程度，但在进行这种交换时，不是按任何准确尺度来做调整的。而是通过市场上的议价来作大体上两不相亏的调整的。这虽不很准确，但对日常买卖也就够了。
Every commodity besides, is more frequently exchanged for, and thereby compared with, other commodities than with labour. It is more natural therefore, to estimate its exchangeable value by the quantity of some other commodity than by that of the labour which it can purchase. The greater part of people too understand better what is meant by a quantity of a particular commodity, than by a quantity of labour. The one is a plain palpable [4] object; the other an abstract notion, which, though it can be made sufficiently intelligible, is not altogether so natural and obvious.
加之，商品多与商品交换，因而多与商品比较，商品少与劳动交换，因而少与劳动比较。所以，以一种商品所能购得的另一种商品量来估定其交换价值，比以这种商品所能购得的劳动量来估定其交换价值较为自然。而且，我们说一定分量的特定商品，比说一定分量的劳动也更容易使人理解。因为，前者是一个可以看得到和接触得到的物体，后者则是一个抽象的概念。抽象概念，纵能使人充分理解，也不像具体物体那样明显、那样自然。
But when barter ceases, and money has become the common instrument of commerce,every particular commodity is more frequently exchanged for money than for any other commodity. The butcher seldom carries his beef or his mutton to the baker, or the brewer [5] , in order to exchange them for bread or for beer;but he carries them to the market, where he exchanges them for money, and afterwards exchanges that money for bread and for beer.The quantity of money which he gets for them regulates too the quantity of bread and beer which he can afterwards purchase. It is more natural and obvious to him, therefore, to estimate their value by the quantity of money, the commodity for which he immediately exchanges them, than by that of bread and beer, the commodities for which he can exchange them only by the intervention of another commodity; and rather to say that his butcher’s meat is worth three pence or four pence a pound, than that it is worth three of four pounds of bread, or three or four quarts of small beer. Hence it comes to pass,that the exchangeable value of every commodity is more frequently estimated by the quantity of money,than by the quantity either of labour or of any other commodity which can be had in exchange for it.
但是，在物物交换已经停止、货币已成为商业上一般媒介的时候，商品就多与货币交换，少与别种商品交换。屠户需要面包或麦酒，不是把牛肉或羊肉直接拿到面包店或酒店去交换，而是先把牛肉或羊肉拿到市场去换取货币，然后再用货币交换面包或麦酒。他出售牛羊肉所得的货币量，决定他后来所能购买的面包量和麦酒量。因此，屠户估计牛羊肉价值，自然多用牛羊肉直接换来的物品量即货币量，少用牛羊肉间接换来的物品量即面包和麦酒量。说家畜肉一磅值三便士或四便士，比说肉一磅值面包三斤或四斤，或值麦酒三夸脱或四夸脱也更为合宜。所以，一个商品的交换价值，多按货币量计算，少按这个商品所能换得的劳动量或其他的商品量计算。
purchase to in place enables with therefore measure from
quantity but
Every man is rich or poor according to the degree 1 which he can afford 2 enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of human life.But after the division of labour has once thoroughly taken 3 , it is but a very small part of these 4 which a man’s own labour can supply him. The far greater part of them he must derive 5 the labour of other people, and he must be rich or poor according to the 6 of that labour which he can command, or which he can afford to 7 . The value of any commodity, 8 , to the person who possesses it, and who means not to use or consume it himself, 9 to exchange it for other commodities, is equal to the quantity of labour which it 10 him to purchase or command. Labour, therefore, is the real 11 of the exchangeable value of all commodities.
1. in 2. to 3. place 4. with 5. from 6. quantity
7. purchase 8. therefore 9. but 10. enables 11. measure
Wealth, as Mr. Hobbes says, is power. But the person who either acquires, or succeeds to a great fortune, does not necessarily acquire or succeed to any political power, either civil or military. His fortune may, perhaps, afford him the means of acquiring both, but the mere possession of that fortune does not necessarily convey to him either. The power which that possession immediately and directly conveys to him, is the power of purchasing: a certain command over all the labour, or over all the produce of labour which is then in the market.
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霍布斯先生说：财富就是权力；但是，获得或继承了大宗财产的人，不一定因此就得到民政的或军事的政治权力，他的财产，也许可以提供他一种获得政权的手段，但单有财产未必就能给他政权。财富直接提供给他的权力，无非是购买的权力；这是一种支配当时市场上有的一切他人劳动或者说他人劳动的一切产品的权力。
[1] ascertain: establish after a calculation, investigation, experiment, survey, or study 确定；查明；探知
[2] ingenuity: the power of creative imagination 心灵手巧，独创性
[3] higgle: negotiate the terms of an exchange 讲价，讨价还价
[4] palpable: capable of being perceived by the senses or the mind, especially capable of being handled or touched or felt 明显的；可感知的；易觉察的
[5] brewer: someone who brews beer or ale from malt, hops and water 啤酒制造者