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Anthony Brewer wrote: 
 
> I am not aware of any link in Smith between utility/value in use  
> and subjective preferences.  
 
Tony may be right about Adam Smith, but such a link can be found in  
Turgot's 1769 article (proposal) 'Valeurs et monnaies'. I have no idea  
whether this article is translated into English, but since the French  
text can be read at Tony's website I guess it is not. 
 
Turgot use of the the word utility (utilite) differs perhaps slightly  
from our modern use. He talks about the "utilite des different  
besoins" (utility of different needs). But he certainly notes that  
the individual ranking of utilities is the basis of choice. It is put  
in the following words: 
 
      Lorsque ce sentiment, ... , prend un caractere de permanence,  
      c'est alors que l'homme commence a comparer entre eux besoins,  
      a proportionner la recherche des objets, non plus uniquement a  
      l'impulsion rapide du besoin present (as the savages did), mais  
      a l'ordre de necessite et d'utilite des differents besoins. 
 
In order to describe how market values come about, Turgot introduces  
the notion 'valeur estimative' (estimated value). This is perhaps  
better translated as 'willingness to pay'. The idea is that  
individuals rank their needs according to necessity and utility and  
that considering the scarcity (rarete) they attach value to a  
commodity. 
 
Turgot mentions two works in which the same truth (cette meme  
verite) is told. The first is Galliani's Della Moneta. According to  
Turgot, however, Galiani was much to imprecise when he said that "the  
common measure of all values is the individual". (La commune mesure  
de toutes les valeurs est l'homme.) The second is Jean Graslin's  
Essay analytique sur la richesse et sur l'impot (1767), in which,  
according to Turgot this truth about value determination is  
'confusement entrevue'. I have not read Graslin's work. Schumpeter  
notes that it is the best criticism of the physiocrats ever offered  
and that it presents a "comprehensive theory of wealth as a theory of  
total income", but he does not say anything about utility theory in  
that book. 
 
Henk W. Plasmeijer 
Faculty of Economics 
State University of Groningen 
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