投资 · 西方古典

托马斯·马尔萨斯:人口论·摘录 55

托马斯·马尔萨斯《人口论》· An Essay on the Principle of Population · 投资

An increase of population without a proportional increase of food will evidently have the same effect in lowering the value of each man's patent. The food must necessarily be distributed in smaller quantities, and consequently a day's labour will purchase a smaller quantity of provisions. An increase in the price of provisions would arise either from an increase of population faster than the means of subsistence, or from a different distribution of the money of the society. The food of a country that has been long occupied, if it be increasing, increases slowly and regularly and cannot be made to answer any sudden demands, but variations in the distribution of the money of a society are not infrequently occurring, and are undoubtedly among the causes that occasion the continual variations which we observe in the price of provisions.

出处: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4239
定位:Excerpt 55 · 核对日期:2026-10-19 · 核验:短摘录

白话

人口增加而食物没有相应增加,显然会同样降低每个人专利的价值。食物必须分得更少,因此一天的劳动只能换到更少的生活资料。食物价格上涨,要么是因为人口增长快于生存资料,要么是因为社会货币的分配方式发生了变化。一个开发已久的国家,食物即使增加也是缓慢而有规律的,无法应对突然的需求;但社会货币分配的变化却经常发生,这无疑是食物价格不断波动的原因之一。

上下文

马尔萨斯分析食物价格波动的两个根源:人口压力与货币分配变化。

今日一问

我是否把物价上涨简单归因于人口,而忽略了分配和货币因素?

公版作品;原文逐字取自 Project Gutenberg,仅摘录段落并附全书链接。

本文本为公版;底本与原文链接见上。 版权

← 返回原文库