David Ricardo
David Ricardo
David Ricardowas an English political economist. He was one of the most influential of the classical economists, along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith, and James Mill...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth18 April 1772
errors political demand
The opinions that the price of commodities depends solely on the proportion of supply and demand, or demand to supply, has become almost an axiom in political economy, and has been the source of much error in that science.
differences long mind
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.
hundred interest rate
Whether a bank lent one million, ten million, or a hundred millions, they would not permanently alter the market rate of interest; they would alter only the value of the money they issued.
proof ifs risen
If English money was of the same value then as before, Hamburgh money must have risen in value. But where is the proof of this?
real fall machines
Neither machines, nor the commodities made by them, rise in real value, but all commodities made by machines fall, and fall in proportion to their durability.
differences variation profit
The variation in the value of money, however great, makes no difference in the rate of profits;...
limits variation levels
Whenever the current of money is forcibly stopped, and when money is prevented from settling at its just level, there are no limits to the possible variations of the exchange.
independent commerce transactions
Every transaction in commerce is an independent transaction.
two scarcity commodity
Possessing utility, commodities derive their exchangeable value from two sources: from their scarcity, and from the quantity of labour required to obtain them.
air water gold
Gold, on the contrary, though of little use compared with air or water, will exchange for a great quantity of other goods.
evil choices taxation
Taxation under every form presents but a choice of evils.
two durability may
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.
rights government people
The last point for consideration is the supposed disposition of the people to interfere with the rights of property. So essential does it appear to me, to the cause of good government, that the rights of property should be held sacred, that I would agree to deprive those of the elective franchise against whom it could justly be alleged that they considered it their interest to invade them.
important able principles
Adam Smith, and other able writers to whom I have alluded, not having viewed correctly the principles of rent, have, it appears to me, overlooked many important truths, which can only be discovered after the subject of rent is thoroughly understood.