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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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David Ricardo
Age: 50 †
Born: 1772
Born: April 19
Died: 1823
Died: January 1
Economist
Philosopher
Politician
Stockbroker
London
England
Equally
Labour
Commodities
Slowly
Consumed
Quickly
Machinery
Rise
Commodity
Would
Wages
Affect
Produced

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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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Profits are not made by differential cleverness, but by differential stupidity.
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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.
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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.
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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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Every transaction in commerce is an independent transaction.
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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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Taxation under every form presents but a choice of evils.
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The exchangeable value of all commodities rises as the difficulties of their production increase.
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Utility then is not the measure of exchangeable value, although it is absolutely essential to it.
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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.
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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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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.
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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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Nothing contributes so much to the prosperity and happiness of a country as high profits.
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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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Gold, on the contrary, though of little use compared with air or water, will exchange for a great quantity of other goods.
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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.
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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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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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