Abstract: The article discusses the importance of the Value theory in interpretation of the development of economic thought. It has been suggested that a useful construct can be devised for the development of economic analysis on the basis of value theory itself. Just as economic theory can be said to have taken the value notion as the basic item which is traced through the economic process, likewise the study of the development of economic analysis can be better understood by analyzing how each author and school approached the three orders of value. The three-value concepts use, exchange, and money, are conceived as being different orders of analysis each with its own peculiar assumptions, emphases, and problems of analysis. To take an example from current controversy, "welfare" within the order of value-in-exchange is properly and narrowly conceived merely in terms of a greater "value" of goods and services as valued in the market place. This is the social "model" or context, social in the sense of pertaining to the process of co-operative production and functional distribution. In terms of aggregate want satisfaction, the welfare propositions must be related to the individual use and thus the order of value-in-use. The problems of measurement and thus of aggregation have proved difficult if not overwhelming. Probably the order of value-in-use cannot receive significant treatment save within the psychological concepts of personality, both individual and social.

　　Subjects: VALUE; ECONOMIC development; PRODUCER cooperatives; PHYSICAL distribution of goods; PRODUCTION (Economic theory); ECONOMICS