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
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.
beer bread malt
If a tax on malt would raise the price of beer, a tax on bread must raise the price of bread.
might way would-be
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.
corn lasts difficulty
The price of corn will naturally rise with the difficulty of producing the last portions of it,...
tools materials
Money is neither a material to work upon nor a tool to work with.
wealth lost mediums
In the same manner if any nation wasted part of its wealth, or lost part of its trade, it could not retain the same quantity of circulating medium which it before possessed.
issues gold purpose
Experience, however, shows that neither a state nor a bank ever have [sic] had the unrestricted power of issuing paper money without abusing that power; in all states, therefore, the issue of paper money ought to be under some check and control; and none seems so proper for that purpose as that of subjecting the issuers of paper money to the obligation of paying their notes either in gold coin or bullion.
supposing-that errors consumption
There can be no greater error then in supposing that capital is increased by non-consumption.