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David Ricardo

38 quotes

“Money is neither a material to work upon nor a tool to work with.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) first seen 1810 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The High Price of Bullion (1810)
“Sufficiently rich to satisfy all my desires and the reasonable desires of all those about me.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) first seen 1815 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to James Mill, 1815, quoted in Newschool biography
“The produce of the earth - all that is derived from its surface by the united application of labour, machinery, and capital, is divided among three classes of the community, namely, the proprietor of the land, the owner of the stock or capital necessary for its cultivation, and the labourers by whose industry it is cultivated.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have endeavoured to show that the ability to pay taxes depends, not on the gross money value of the mass of commodities, nor on the net money value of the revenue of capitalists and landlords, but on the money value of each man's revenue compared to the money value of the commodities which he usually consumes.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Utility then is not the measure of exchangeable value, although it is absolutely essential to it.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Possessing utility, commodities derive their exchangeable value from two sources: from their scarcity, and from the quantity of labour required to obtain them.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The wheat bought by a farmer to sow is comparatively a fixed capital to the wheat purchased by a baker to make into loaves.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The variation in the value of money, however great, makes no difference in the rate of profits;...”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rent is that portion of the produce of the earth which is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Population regulates itself by the funds which are to employ it, and therefore always increases or diminishes with the increase or the diminution of capital. Every reduction of capital is therefore necessarily followed by a less effective demand for corn, by a fall in price, and by diminished cultivation.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The farmer and manufacturer can no more live without profit than the labourer without wages.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every transaction in commerce is an independent transaction.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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?”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There can be no greater error then in supposing that capital is increased by non-consumption.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The demand for money is regulated entirely by its value, and its value by its quantity.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“But it is clear that the price of labour has no necessary connection with the price of food, since it depends entirely on the supply of labourers compared with the demand.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If a tax on malt would raise the price of beer, a tax on bread must raise the price of bread.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A BOUNTY on the exportation of corn tends to lower its price to the foreign consumer, but it has no permanent effect on its price in the home market.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“for price is everywhere regulated by the return obtained by this last portion of capital, for which no rent whatever is paid.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have already expressed my opinion on this subject in treating of rent, and have now only further to add, that rent is a creation of value, as I understand that word, but not a creation of wealth.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The price of corn will naturally rise with the difficulty of producing the last portions of it,...”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It has been my endeavour to show in this work that a fall of wages would have no other effect than to raise profits.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A merchant trading with capital has been injured by the depreciation of money, as his capital has not been equal to the same extent of business as before the depreciation; but there are few merchants in this situation:—their capitals, as well as that of tradesmen, are invested in goods, ships, &c. they are rather debtors than creditors to the rest of the community... the prices of their commodities will undergo the same variations as the prices of all others, their comparative value will... be the same... The depreciation of the circulating medium has been more injurious to monied men... It may be laid down as a principle of universal application, that every man is injured or benefited by the variation of the value of the circulating medium in proportion as his property consists of money, or as the fixed demands on him in money exceed those fixed demands which he may have on others. Thus the farmer is injured by any increase in the value of money... whilst he has a fixed money rent, and fixed money taxes to pay. His produce... will sell for less, whilst his taxes and rent continue the same. ...He, more than any other class of the community, is benefited by the depreciation of money, and injured by the increase of its value.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) first seen 1809 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Editor, Morning Chronicle (Sep 6, 1810) as quoted in "Report of the Bullion Committee, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo (1962) Cambridge at the University Press for the Royal Economic Society,…
“If I have to hire a labourer for a week, and instead of ten shillings I pay him eight, no variation having taken place in the value of money, the labourer can probably obtain more food and necessaries with his eight shillings than he before obtained for ten: but this is owing, not to a rise in the real value of his wages, as stated by Adam Smith, and more recently by Mr. Malthus, but to a fall in the value of the things on which his wages are expended, things perfectly distinct; and yet for calling this a fall in the real value of wages, I am told that I adopt new and unusual language, not reconcilable with the true principals of the science. To me it appears that the unusual and, indeed, inconsistent language is that used by my opponents.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and labour to such employments as are most beneficial to each. This pursuit of individual advantage is admirably connected with the universal good of the whole. By stimulating industry, by rewarding ingenuity, and by using most efficaciously the peculiar powers bestowed by nature, it distributes labour most effectively and most economically: while, by increasing the general mass of productions, it diffuses general benefit, and binds together, by one common tie of interest and intercourse, the universal society of nations throughout the civilized world.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If capital freely flowed towards those countries where it could be most profitably employed, there could be no difference in the rate of profit, and no other difference in the real or labour price of commodities, than the additional quantity of labour required to convey them to the various markets where they were to be sold. Experience, however, shews, that the fancied or real insecurity of capital, when not under the immediate control of its owner, together with the natural disinclination which every man has to quit the country of his birth and connexions, and intrust himself with all his habits fixed, to a strange government and new laws, check the emigration of capital. These feelings, which I should be sorry to see weakened, induce most men of property to be satisfied with a low rate of profits in their own country, rather than seek a more advantageous employment for their wealth in foreign nations.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mr. Malthus says, " It has been justly observed by Adam Smith that no equal quantity of productive labour employed in manufactures can ever occasion so great a reproduction as in agriculture. " If Adam Smith speaks of value, he is correct; but if he speaks of riches, which is the important point, he is mistaken; for he has himself defined riches to consist of the necessaries, conveniences, and enjoyments of human life. One set of necessaries and conveniences admits of no comparison with another set; value in use cannot be measured by any known standard; it is differently estimated by different persons.”
David Ricardo (1772–1823) said by 1823 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source