British - Economist | April 18, 1772 - September 11, 1823
There can be no rise in the value of labour without a fall of profits.
David Ricardo
FinanceValueFallRiseWithout
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.
FinanceValueGoldSilverQuantity
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.
MoneyValueRisePriceRealReason
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.
MoneyRisePriceWillWagesBeen
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.
GreatValueFarmerPriceHimHigh
Gold, on the contrary, though of little use compared with air or water, will exchange for a great quantity of other goods.
GreatWaterGoldWillAirQuantity
After all the fertile land in the immediate neighbourhood of the first settlers were cultivated, if capital and population increased, more food would be required, and it could only be procured from land not so advantageously situated.
FoodLandMoreFirstPopulation
It is not by the absolute quantity of produce obtained by either class, that we can correctly judge of the rate of profit, rent, and wages, but by the quantity of labour required to obtain that produce.
JudgeProfitClassRentQuantity
The exchangeable value of all commodities, rises as the difficulties of their production increase.
ValueDifficultiesProductionRises
The rise or fall of wages is common to all states of society, whether it be the stationary, the advancing, or the retrograde state.
SocietyFallRiseCommonWages
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.
RiseAffectWagesWouldSlowly
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.
AloneCountryDesireLimitWithout
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict David Ricardo quotes