Application of the mathematical structure of classical dynamics to the theory of value will provide a formulation of the theory of economic motion in which growth theory and price theory merge. Here only problems of the theory of value will be modelled. The labor saving principle provides a basis for study of questions of price theory. Ever since Leon Walras [1960] first advocated the application of mechanical methods to elucidate the central problems of value and economic motion, economists have been intrigued by the idea and explored its possibilities in representing particular economic problems (see, e.g.) Amoroso [1940], Magill [1970], or Cass and Shell [1976]. Making use of these methods we shall define here a principle of labor saving which bears a resemblance to the variational principles of mechanics, as treated by Lanczos [1957]. By way of illustration the labor theory of value will be used in the form of a dynamic Leontief-type linear economy. This schematic case in point, however, only serves as an example. The framework of the analysis, its formalism, is applicable to far more general cases of nonlinear relations and, what is more, it is only in this broader domain that the advantages of the new approach become apparent.