David Ricardo：On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 304

Although Adam Smith has given the correct description of riches, which I have more than once noticed, he afterwards explains them differently, and says, "that a man must be rich or poor according to the quantity of labour which he can afford to purchase." Now this description differs essentially from the other, and is certainly incorrect; for suppose the mines were to become more productive, so that gold and silver fell in value, from the greater facility of their production; or that velvets were to be manufactured with so much less labour than before, that they fell to half their former value; the riches of all those who purchased those commodities would be increased: one man might increase the quantity of his plate, another might buy double the quantity of velvet; but with the possession of this additional plate, and velvet, they could employ no more labour than before; because as the exchangeable value of velvet and of plate would be lowered, they must part with proportionally more of these species of riches to purchase a day's labour. Riches then cannot be estimated by the quantity of labour which they can purchase.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33310
Locator：Excerpt 304 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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