political fragmentation and cultural diversity 281the labour, as it is not desired by itself as acquired”. To expand on
Ibn-Khaldùn’s example, ornaments, work of art, beautification of
materials, embroidery of fabrics, etc., are valuable because of the
level of skill, artistic ability and expertise required in their production.
Or as Ibn-Khaldùn explained further, “Some crafts are associated
with others. Carpentry and weaving, for instance, are associated with
wood and yarn, but in these two crafts, the labour (that is put into
it) is more important, and its value is greater”.
One should realise however that at the time of Ibn-Khaldùn mass
production was not yet known and the artistic input of work in pro-
duction was based mainly on human expertise. Labour may take a
second place in these circumstances. In mass production when the
input of labour is not particularly dominant, the portion of value
assigned to labour would be small, giving way to others portions of
value that may be associated with, and more dominant than, other
factors of production such as capital and entrepreneurship. However,
and in anticipation of our thinking, Ibn-Khaldùn already stated that
a portion of value, “whether large or small” came from labour.
Trade
Ibn-Khaldùn provided some interesting discussions on trade and its
associated financial risk. He, first, defined trade, which, to him, meant,
“increasing one’s capital by buying merchandise and attempting to
sell it for a price higher than its purchase price, either by waiting
for market fluctuations or by transporting the merchandise to a coun-
try where that particular merchandise is more in demand and brings
higher prices, or by selling for a high price to be paid in a future
date”. From the definition, the following points could be highlighted:
Trade is a means by which the capital grows, “increasing one’s
capital”, and this done by,
selling at a higher price than the purchase price, a difference in
prices to which Ibn-Khaldùn referred as ‘profit’, through
waiting for market fluctuation, or
transporting the merchandise to another country where prices are
higher, or
selling now for payment to be made in a future date.
The definition fits in adequately with economic concepts that became
known from the nineteenth onward. The Physiocrat Turgot’s concept