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If a commodity were in no way useful, - in other words, if it could in no way contribute to our gratification, - it would be destitute of exchangeable value, however scarce it might be, or whatever quantity of labour might be necessary to procure it.

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
Values
Contribute
Words
Quantity
Might
Labour
Useful
Procure
Way
However
Destitute
Would
Necessary
Scarce
Value
Gratification
Whatever
Commodity

More quotes by David Ricardo

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Called an inquiry into the laws which determine the division of the produce.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Taxation under every form presents but a choice of evils.
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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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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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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.
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Utility then is not the measure of exchangeable value, although it is absolutely essential to it.
David Ricardo
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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.
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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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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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.
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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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