The discussion of the tendencies of profit rates measured in different units
(money, labor-time, a numeraire commodity) has gotten me to look again at the
problem of the numeraire. It is often taken for granted either that
(a) an arbitrary value can be assumed for the numeraire, or
(b) the value of the numeraire in terms of itself necessarily equals 1.
Interestingly, neither notion is found in Walras' _Elements_. Does anyone
know with whom and how these notions arose?
Many thanks in advance,
Andrew Kliman