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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.

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
Free
Liberalism
Left
Controlled
Never
Fairs
Like
Fair
Competition
Interference
Economy
Legislature
Wisdom
Contracts
Politics
Wages

More quotes by David Ricardo

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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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Nothing contributes so much to the prosperity and happiness of a country as high profits.
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A rise of wages from this cause will, indeed, be invariably accompanied by a rise in the price of commodities but in such cases, it will be found that labour and all commodities have not varied in regard to each other, and that the variation has been confined to money.
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No extension of foreign trade will immediately increase the amount of value in a country, although it will very powerfully contribute to increase the mass of commodities and therefore the sum of enjoyments.
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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.
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The factors left out of the Ricardian equation are falling wages and idle capacity.
David Ricardo
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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.
David Ricardo
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Taxation under every form presents but a choice of evils.
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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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The exchangeable value of all commodities rises as the difficulties of their production increase.
David Ricardo
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The wheat bought by a farmer to sow is comparatively a fixed capital to the wheat purchased by a baker to make into loaves.
David Ricardo
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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.
David Ricardo
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Gold, on the contrary, though of little use compared with air or water, will exchange for a great quantity of other goods.
David Ricardo
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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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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.
David Ricardo
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The price of corn will naturally rise with the difficulty of producing the last portions of it.
David Ricardo
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The farmer and manufacturer can no more live without profit than the labourer without wages.
David Ricardo
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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.
David Ricardo
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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 whatever on profits.
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.
David Ricardo