On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 1 illegible passage, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~140,000 words · 642 passages
Cite this work
- APADavid Ricardo. (n.d.). On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/david-ricardo/on-the-principles-of-political-economy-and-taxation
- MLADavid Ricardo. On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/david-ricardo/on-the-principles-of-political-economy-and-taxation.
- ChicagoDavid Ricardo. On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/david-ricardo/on-the-principles-of-political-economy-and-taxation.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
The 1817 book that gave political economy its deductive form: abstract models, few variables, rigorous conclusions.
Context and history
Three things from it have lasted. The first is the theory of rent: the worst land still worth cultivating sets the price, and what the better lands yield above that goes to the owner without his doing anything. The second is comparative advantage, the counter-intuitive and still living argument that two countries gain by trading even when one is better at producing everything. The third is the labour theory of value, which Ricardo left half settled and which Marx took up from another side. His way of reasoning, more than his conclusions, is what has marked later economics; the so-called 'Ricardian vice' — deducing conclusions about the world from the model without looking at the world — comes from his example.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
If we suppose the occupations of the society extended, that some provide canoes and tackle necessary for fishing, others the seed and rude machinery first used in agriculture, still the same principle would hold true, that the exchangeable value of the commodities produced would be in proportion to the labour bestowed on their production; not on their immediate production only, but on all those implements or machines required to give effect to the particular labour to which they were applied. If we look to a state of society in which greater improvements have been made, and in which arts and commerce flourish, we shall still find that commodities vary in value conformably with this principle: in estimating the exchangeable value of stockings, for example, we shall find that their value, comparatively with other things, depends on the total quantity of labour necessary to manufacture them, and bring them to market. First, there is the labour necessary to cultivate the land on which the raw cotton is grown; secondly, the labour of conveying the cotton to the country where the stockings are to be manufactured, which includes a portion of the labour bestowed in building the ship in which it is conveyed, and which is charged in the freight of the goods; thirdly, the labour of the spinner and weaver; fourthly, a portion of the labour of the engineer, smith, and carpenter, who erected the buildings and machinery, by the help of which they are made; fifthly, the labour of the retail dealer, and of many others, whom it is unnecessary further to particularize. The aggregate sum of these various kinds of labour, determines the quantity of other things for which these stockings will exchange, while the same consideration of the various quantities of labour which have been bestowed on those other things, will equally govern the portion of them which will be given for the stockings.