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大卫·李嘉图:政治经济学及赋税原理·摘录 304

大卫·李嘉图《政治经济学及赋税原理》· On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation · 投资

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.

出处: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33310
定位:Excerpt 304 · 核对日期:2026-10-19 · 核验:短摘录

白话

亚当·斯密正确描述了财富,但后来又说一个人贫富取决于他能购买多少劳动。李嘉图认为这不对。假设金银矿更丰产,金银价值下降;或者天鹅绒生产更省力,价格减半。买这些商品的人财富增加了,能买更多盘子或天鹅绒,但他们能雇到的劳动并没有变多,因为这些商品交换价值降低,要换一天劳动得付出更多数量。所以财富不能用能购买多少劳动来衡量。财富是你能享受的实物,价值是交换比例,两者要分开。

上下文

李嘉图批评斯密把财富等同于购买劳动的能力,用金银和天鹅绒的例子说明两者不一致。

今日一问

你判断自己变富时,是看能买多少东西,还是看能雇多少劳动?

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