Cost the limit of price
# Cost the limit of price

Part of a series on :

Anarchism :

History

Outline :

Schools of thought

Feminist

Green

Primitivist

Social ecology

Total liberation

Individualist

Egoist

Existentialist

Free-market

Naturist

Philosophical

Mutualism

Postcolonial

African

Black

Queer

Religious

Christian

Jewish

Social

Collectivist

Parecon

Communist

Magonism

Without adjectives

Methodology

Agorism

Illegalism

Insurrectionary

Communization

Expropriative

Pacifist

Platformism

Especifismo

Relationship

Syndicalist

Synthesis :

Theory

Practice

Anarchy

Anarchist Black Cross

Anarchist criminology

Anationalism

Anti-authoritarianism

Anti-capitalism

Anti-militarism

Affinity group

Autonomous social center

Black bloc

Classless society

Class struggle

Consensus decision-making

Conscientious objector

Critique of work

Decentralization

Deep ecology

Direct action

Free association

Free love

Freethought

Horizontalidad

Individualism

Isocracy

Law

Mutual aid

Participatory politics

Permanent autonomous zone

Prefigurative politics

Proletarian internationalism

Propaganda of the deed

Refusal of work

Revolution

Revolutionary spontaneity

Rewilding

Security culture

Self-ownership

Social ecology

Sociocracy

Somatherapy

Spontaneous order

Squatting

Temporary autonomous zone

Union of egoists

Voluntary association

Workers' council :

People

Armand

Ba

Bakunin

Berkman

Bonanno

Bookchin

Chomsky

Cleyre

Day

Durruti

Ellul

Ervin

Faure

Ferrer

Feyerabend

Godwin

Goldman

González Prada

Graeber

Guillaume

He-Yin

Kanno

Kōtoku

Kropotkin

Landauer

Liu

Magón

Makhno

Malatesta

Michel

Most

Parsons

Pi

Proudhon

Rocker

Santillán

Spooner

Stirner

Thoreau

Tolstoy

Tucker

Volin

Ward

Warren

Zerzan :

Issues

Animal rights

Capitalism

Education

Love and sex

Nationalism

Religion

Violence :

History

Paris Commune

Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA

Cantonal rebellion

Hague Congress

International Conference of Rome

Trial of the Thirty

Haymarket affair

May Day

Congress of Amsterdam

Tragic Week

High Treason Incident

Manifesto of the Sixteen

Individualist anarchism in the United States

1919 United States bombings

Biennio Rosso

German Revolution of 1918–1919

Bavarian Soviet Republic

Kronstadt rebellion

Makhnovshchina

Amakasu Incident

Escuela Moderna

Individualist anarchism in Europe

Spanish Revolution of 1936

Barcelona May Days

Red inverted triangle

Labadie Collection

May 1968

Provo

LIP

Kate Sharpley Library

Australian Anarchist Centenary

Carnival Against Capital

1999 Seattle WTO protests

Really Really Free Market

Occupy movement :

Culture

A las Barricadas

Anarchist bookfair

Anarcho-punk

Arts

Culture jamming

DIY ethic

Films

Freeganism

Glossary

Infoshop

Independent Media Center

The Internationale

Jewish anarchism

Lifestylism

"No gods, no masters"

Popular education

"Property is theft!"

Radical cheerleading

Radical environmentalism

Squatting

Symbolism :

Economics

Communization

Cooperative

Cost the limit of price

General strike

Gift economy

Give-away shop

Free association

Labour voucher

Market abolitionism

Mutual aid

Mutual credit

Participatory economics

Social ownership

Wage slavery

Workers' self-management :

By region

Africa

Albania

Algeria

Andorra

Argentina

Armenia

Australia

Austria

Azerbaijan

Bangladesh

Belarus

Belgium

Bolivia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Brazil

Bulgaria

Canada

Chile

China

Colombia

Costa Rica

Croatia

Cuba

Czech Republic

Denmark

Dominican Republic

East Timor

Ecuador

Egypt

El Salvador

Estonia

Finland

France

French Guiana

Georgia

Germany

Greece

Guatemala

Hong Kong

Hungary

Iceland

India

Indonesia

Iran

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Japan

Korea

Latvia

Malaysia

Mexico

Monaco

Mongolia

Morocco

Netherlands

New Zealand

Nicaragua

Nigeria

Norway

Panama

Paraguay

Peru

Philippines

Poland

Portugal

Puerto Rico

Romania

Russia

Serbia

Singapore

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Syria

Taiwan

Tunisia

Turkey

Ukraine

United Kingdom

United States

Uruguay

Venezuela

Vietnam :

Lists

Anarcho-punk bands

Books

Communities

Fictional characters

Films

Jewish anarchists

Musicians

Periodicals :

Related topics

Anti-corporatism

Anti-consumerism

Anti-fascism

Anti-globalization

Anti-statism

Anti-war movement

Autarchism

Autonomism

Communism

Counter-economics

Definition of anarchism and libertarianism

Labour movement

Left communism

Left-libertarianism

Libertarianism

Libertarian Marxism

Libertarian socialism

Marxism

Situationist International

Socialism

Spontaneous order

Voluntaryism :

Anarchism portal

Politics portal :

vte :

Part of a series on :

Libertarian socialism :

Political concepts

Anti-authoritarianism

Class conflict

Decentralization

Egalitarian community

Free association

Mutual aid

Revolutionary spontaneity

Workers' control :

Economics

Anti-capitalism

Co-operative economics

Decentralized planning

Economic democracy

Industrial democracy

Participatory economics

Socialization

Socialist economics

Worker cooperative

Workers' self-management :

People

Albert

Andrews

Bakunin

Berkman

Bookchin

Camus

Castoriadis

Chomsky

Cole

Déjacque

Foot

Fotopoulos

Fourier

Guérin

Kropotkin

Lefort

Margall

Morris

Marcuse

Pallis

Pankhurst

Pannekoek

Proudhon

Rocker

Rühle :

Philosophies and tendencies

Anarchist tendencies

Social anarchism

Anarchist communism

Anarcho-syndicalism

Collectivist anarchism

Marxist tendencies

Autonomism

Chaulieu–Montal tendency

Council communism

Situationism

Western Marxism

Other tendencies

Democratic confederalism

Guild socialism

Libertarian municipalism

Utopian socialism

Neozapatismo :

History

International Workingmen's Association

Revolutions of 1917–1923

Korean People's Association in Manchuria

Spanish Revolution of 1936

New Left

New social movements

Zapatista uprising

MAREZ

Rojava Revolution

AANES :

Related topics

Communism

Libertarianism

Social democracy

Socialism

Democratic socialism

Eco-socialism

Syndicalism :

Anarchism portal

 Libertarianism portal

 Socialism portal

 Politics portal :

vte :

"Cost the limit of price" was a maxim coined by Josiah Warren, indicating a (prescriptive) version of the labor theory of value. Warren maintained that the just compensation for labor (or for its product) could only be an equivalent amount of labor (or a product embodying an equivalent amount). Thus, profit, rent, and interest were considered unjust economic arrangements. As Samuel Edward Konkin III put it, "the labor theory of value recognizes no distinction between profit and plunder."

In keeping with the tradition of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, the "cost" of labor is considered to be the subjective cost; i.e., the amount of suffering involved in it.

## Development

The principle was set forth in Warren's Equitable Commerce (among other writings) and has been called a "mainstay of 19th century individualist anarchism". It was further advocated and popularized by Benjamin Tucker in his individualist anarchist periodical Liberty, and in his books. Tucker explained there are two kinds of Socialisms, one authoritarian (ie. Marx) and one libertarian (Proudhon and Warren), yet what both schools of Socialism have in common is the labor theory of value. Tucker explained Warren's views as so:

   From Smith's principle that labor is the true measure of price – or, as Warren phrased it, that cost is the proper limit of price – these three men [i.e., Josiah Warren, Pierre Proudhon, and Karl Marx] made the following deductions: that the natural wage of labor is its product; that this wage, or product, is the only just source of income (leaving out, of course, gift, inheritance, etc.); that all who derive income from any other source abstract it directly or indirectly from the natural and just wage of labor; that this abstracting process generally takes one of three forms, – interest, rent, and profit; that these three constitute the trinity of usury, and are simply different methods of levying tribute for the use of capital; that, capital being simply stored-up labor which has already received its pay in full, its use ought to be gratuitous, on the principle that labor is the only basis of price; that the lender of capital is entitled to its return intact, and nothing more; that the only reason why the banker, the stockholder, the landlord, the manufacturer, and the merchant are able to exact usury from labor lies in the fact that they are backed by legal privilege ...

Warren put his principle into practice in 1827 by establishing an experimental "equity store", called the Cincinnati Time Store, where trade was facilitated by notes backed by a promise to perform labor. This scheme was exactly that advocated by Pierre Proudhon some years later under the name mutuellisme; however, it is believed that Proudhon developed his ideas independently.

