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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
David Ricardo · Passages from the same work, in order.
On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 1
The produce of the earth--all that is derived from its surface by the united application of labour, machinery, and capital, is divided among three…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 2
But in different stages of society, the proportions of the whole produce of the earth which will be allotted to each of these classes, under the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 3
To determine the laws which regulate this distribution, is the principal problem in Political Economy: much as the science has been improved by the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 4
In 1815, Mr. Malthus in his "Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent," and a Fellow of University College, Oxford, in his "Essay on the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 5
To supply this deficiency, abilities are required of a far superior cast to any possessed by the writer of the following pages; yet after having…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 6
The writer, in combating received opinions, has found it necessary to advert more particularly to those passages in the writings of Adam Smith from…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 7
The same remark may be applied to the excellent works of M. Say, who not only was the first, or among the first, of continental writers, who justly…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 8
In speaking then of commodities, of their exchangeable value, and of the laws which regulate their relative prices, we mean always such commodities…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 9
That this is really the foundation of the exchangeable value of all things, excepting those which cannot be increased by human industry, is a…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 10
If the quantity of labour realized in commodities, regulate their exchangeable value, every increase of the quantity of labour must augment the value…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 11
In the same country double the quantity of labour may be required to produce a given quantity of food and necessaries at one time, that may be…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 12
If the shoes and clothing of the labourer, could, by improvements in machinery, be produced by one fourth of the labour now necessary to their…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 13
As the inquiry to which I wish to draw the reader's attention, relates to the effect of the variations in the relative value of commodities, and…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 14
It will be seen by the extract which I have made in page 4, from the "Wealth of Nations," that though Adam Smith fully recognized the principle, that…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 15
Adam Smith, however, has no where analyzed the effects of the accumulation of capital, and the appropriation of land, on relative value. It is of…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 16
First, as to the accumulation of capital. Even in that early state to which Adam Smith refers, some capital, though possibly made and accumulated…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 17
All the implements necessary to kill the beaver and deer might belong to one class of men, and the labour employed in their destruction might be…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 18
If we suppose the occupations of the society extended, that some provide canoes and tackle necessary for fishing, others the seed and rude…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 19
To convince ourselves that this is the real foundation of exchangeable value, let us suppose any improvement to be made in the means of abridging…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 20
Economy in the use of labour never fails to reduce the relative value of a commodity, whether the saving be in the labour necessary to the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 21
In every society the capital which is employed in production, is necessarily of limited durability. The food and clothing consumed by the labourer,…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 22
According as capital is rapidly perishable, and requires to be frequently reproduced, or is of slow consumption, it is classed under the heads of…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 23
Two trades then may employ the same amount of capital; but it may be very differently divided with respect to the portion which is fixed, and that…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 24
Again two manufacturers may employ the same amount of fixed, and the same amount of circulating capital; but the durability of their fixed capitals…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 25
Besides the alteration in the relative value of commodities, occasioned by more or less labour being required to produce them, they are also…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 26
Suppose money to be that commodity. If a salmon were worth 1_l._ and a deer 2_l._ one deer would be worth two salmon. But a deer might become of…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 27
The prices of the commodities would not rise, because the money in which they are valued is by the supposition of an invariable value, always…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 28
If the gold mine from which money was obtained were in the same country, in that case, after the rise of wages, 210_l._ might be necessary to be…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 29
Now suppose, that with the same labour and fixed capital, more fish could be produced, but no more gold or game, the relative value of fish would…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 30
If we had then an invariable standard, by which we could measure the variation in other commodities, we should find that the utmost limit to which…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 31
If the fixed and circulating capitals were in different proportions, or if the fixed capital were of different durability, then the relative value of…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 32
First, when the fixed and circulating capitals were in different proportions, suppose that instead of 100_l._ fixed capital and 100_l._ circulating…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 33
Thus we see, that with every rise of wages, in proportion as the capital employed in any occupation consists of circulating capital, its produce will…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 34
Secondly, suppose the proportions of fixed capital to be the same; but of different degrees of durability. In proportion as fixed capital is less…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 35
of 20,952_l._ If labour so rose, that 21,153_l._ were required, profits would fall to 4 per cent. and if it rose, so that 21,359_l._ was employed,…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 36
But, as no wages would be paid by the owner of the machine, which would last 100 years, when profits fell to 5 per cent. the price of his goods…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 37
In proportion as this machine were less durable, prices would be less affected by the fall of profit, and the rise of wages. If, for example, the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 38
for such are the sums requisite to place his profits on a par with others, and to replace his capital at the end of ten years; or, which is the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 39
These results are of such importance to the science of political economy, yet accord so little with some of its received doctrines, which maintain…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 40
It appears, then, that in proportion to the quantity and the durability of the fixed capital employed in any kind of production, the relative…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 41
The above statement, which asserts the compatibility of a rise of wages, with a fall of prices, has, I know, the disadvantage of novelty, and must…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 42
Money, from its being a commodity obtained from a foreign country, from its being the general medium of exchange between all civilized countries, and…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 43
A rise in wages, from an alteration in the value of money, produces a general effect on price, and for that reason it produces no real effect…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 44
It is according to the division of the whole produce of the land and labour of the country, between the three classes of landlords, capitalists,…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 45
In that case I should say, that wages and rent had fallen, and profits risen; though in consequence of the abundance of commodities, the quantity…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 46
The variation in the value of money, however great, makes no difference in the _rate_ of profits; for suppose the goods of the manufacturer to rise…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 47
If, with capital of a given value, he double the quantity of produce, its value falls one half, and then it will bear the same proportion to the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 48
If at the same time that he doubles the quantity of produce by the employment of the same capital, the value of money is by any accident lowered…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 49
It appears then that the accumulation of capital, by occasioning different proportions of fixed and circulating capital to be employed in different…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 50
Commodities, though they continue to rise and fall, in proportion as more or less labour is necessary to their production, are also affected in their…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 51
It appears too, that commodities may be lowered in value in consequence of a real rise of wages, but they never can be raised from that cause. On the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 52
On the first settling of a country, in which there is an abundance of rich and fertile land, a very small proportion of which is required to be…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 53
When land of the third quality is taken into cultivation, rent immediately commences on the second, and it is regulated as before, by the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 54
It often, and indeed commonly happens that before No. 2, 3, 4, or 5, or the inferior lands are cultivated, capital can be employed more…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 55
In such case, capital will be preferably employed on the old land, and will equally create a rent; for rent is always the difference between the…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 56
In this case, as well as in the other, the capital last employed pays no rent. For the greater productive powers of the first 1000_l._, fifteen…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 57
If then good land existed in a quantity much more abundant than the production of food for an increasing population required, or if capital could…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 58
The exchangeable value of all commodities, whether they be manufactured, or the produce of the mines, or the produce of land, is always regulated,…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 59
The reason then, why raw produce rises in comparative value, is because more labour is employed in the production of the last portion obtained, and…
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On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Excerpt 60
The rise of rent is always the effect of the increasing wealth of the country, and of the difficulty of providing food for its augmented population.…
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