1. In Chapter 1, the second proposition sets out the object of political economy: economic exchanges of services or goods.
In the same chapter, the fourth proposition lays down the convention of the object of the Objective Political Economy.
2. It goes without saying that a service rendered must itself be a commodity in order to be the end of a commodity exchange.
It is by conventions of designation that commodities are ultimately exchanged only for commodities. But since these conventions take into account indisputable realities, it is certainly true that commodities are ultimately exchanged only for commodities.
3. This truth establishes three others.
These other truths relate to subsidies (4 below), primary commodities (5 below), supply and demand (6 to 8 below).
4. Subsidies transfer purchasing power that in one way or another comes from the sale of commodities.
In other words, for there to be purchases, there must first have been sales. Or, with "demand" for "purchases" and "supply" for sales, for there to be demand, there must first have been supply. More precisely, for there to be a demand for finished products, there must first have been the supply of the primary commodity, that is to say, that of jobs in exchange for wages. Even more precisely, for there to be more demand for finished products, there must first and foremost be more job offers that provide purchasing power that is itself on the rise.
5. The lasting increase in the volume and quality of market trade depends on the sustainable increase in the volume and quality of trade in the primary commodity.
There is only real economic growth when there are at least as many new jobs as there are disappearances and when the purchasing power of wages increases. What is the most appropriate way to achieve this? The relevance of an economic theory and policy depends very much on the answer they give to this question.
6. The parties involved in economic exchanges are both bidders and demanders.
This is totally and immediately obvious in the case of barter. This remains true when one of the two terms of economic exchange is a quantity of money. In the latter case, for one of the two parties, the supply consists of a commodity and the demand of a quantity of money. For the other part, it is the opposite: supply is made up of a quantity of money and demand is made up of a commodity.
7. In the case of the employer and the employee, who is the provider and who is the requester?
The employer is a requester of a service and a wage provider. The employee is asking for a wage and offering a service. Since usage emphasizes more the wage than its counterpart, it is agreed that the provider is the employer and the applicant is the employee or the job seeker. In reality, both are suppliers and demanders, one of a commodity, the other of its payment.
8. In many economic discourses, "supply" means "production" and "demand" means "consumption".
By virtue of these meanings, some consider that supply is the generator of economic exchanges. Others say it's the demand. The question is to know how and where the exchange of commodities for commodities is constantly restarted. Ambivalent notions of supply and demand do not provide the best answer with certainty because they are ambivalent.