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Mike Robison is quite correct in pointing out Adam Smith's measure of 
value (at least originally) at the beginning of Book l, Chapt. 5 of WEALTH 
OF NATIONS.  
 
"The value of any commodity, therefore, to the person who possesses 
it..... 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."  And further on "Labour was the first price, the 
original purchase money that was paid for all things." 
 
Smith's theory of value was not the same as the Ricardian or Marxist 
"Labor theory of Value" which equates value with the socially necessary 
labor time involved in production. Rather, it determines value in a 
negative sense as the "toil and trouble" saved or as "command" over labor. 
Of course, this relates to exchange value and not to use value.  
 
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