Quote

LABOUR, like all other things which are purchased and sold, and which may be increased or diminished in quantity, has its natural and its market price. The natural price of labour is that price which is necessary to enable the labourers, on with another, to subsist and to perpetuate their race, without either increase or diminution.

David Ricardo

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David Ricardo
Age: 50 †
Born: 1772
Born: April 19
Died: 1823
Died: January 1
Economist
Philosopher
Politician
Stockbroker
London
England
May
Price
Perpetuate
Without
Market
Purchased
Things
Increase
Diminished
Like
Necessary
Enable
Either
Increased
Race
Sold
Diminution
Natural
Quantity
Labourers
Another
Labour
Subsist

More quotes by David Ricardo

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The exchangeable value of all commodities rises as the difficulties of their production increase.
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The price of corn will naturally rise with the difficulty of producing the last portions of it.
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As the revenue of the farmer is realized in raw produce, or in the value of raw produce, he is interested, as well as the landlord, in its high exchangeable value, but a low price of produce may be compensated to him by a great additional quantity.
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Utility then is not the measure of exchangeable value, although it is absolutely essential to it.
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It has therefore been justly observed that however honestly the coin of a country may conform to its standard, money made of gold and silver is still liable to fluctuations in value, not only to accidental, and temporary, but to permanent and natural variations, in the same manner as other commodities.
David Ricardo
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Whenever, then, the usual and ordinary rate of the profits of agricultural stock, and all the outgoings belonging to the cultivation of land, are together equal to the value of the whole produce, there can be no rent.
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Called an inquiry into the laws which determine the division of the produce.
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Taxation under every form presents but a choice of evils.
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Again two manufacturers may employ the same amount of fixed, and the same amount of circulating capital but the durability of their fixed capitals may be very unequal.
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Gold and silver are no doubt subject to fluctuations, from the discovery of new and more abundant mines but such discoveries are rare, and their effects, though powerful, are limited to periods of comparatively short duration.
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To alter the money value of commodities, by altering the value of money, and yet to raise the same money amount by taxes, is then undoubtedly to increase the burthens of society.
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But a rise in the wages of labour would not equally affect commodities produced with machinery quickly consumed, and commodities produced with machinery slowly consumed.
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Like all other contracts, wages should be left to the fair and free competition of themarket, and should never be controlled by the interference of the legislature.
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But a tax on luxuries would no other effect than to raise their price. It would fall wholly on the consumer, and could neither increase wages nor lower profits.
David Ricardo
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Profits are not made by differential cleverness, but by differential stupidity.
David Ricardo
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If I discover a manure which will enable me to make a piece of land produce 20 per cent more corn, I may withdraw at least a portion of my capital from the most unproductive part of my farm.
David Ricardo
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Gold and silver, like other commodities, have an intrinsic value, which is not arbitrary, but is dependent on their scarcity, the quantity of labour bestowed in procuring them, and the value of the capital employed in the mines which produce them.
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It appears to me that one great cause of our difference in opinion on subjects which we often discuss is that you have always in mind the immediate and temporary effects of particular changes, whereas I put these effects quite aside, and fix my whole attention on the long-term effects that will result from them.
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Profits might also increase, because improvements might take place in agriculture, or in the implements of husbandry, which would augment the produce with the same cost of production.
David Ricardo
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By far the greatest part of those goods which are the objects of desire, are procured by labour and they may be multiplied, not in one country alone, but in many, almost without any assignable limit, if we are disposed to bestow the labour necessary to obtain them.
David Ricardo