第75章 Ricardo(16)

5.Works ,p.285.

6.Ibid.p.386.

7.See also Letters to Malthus ,p.175.

8.'Your modern political economists say that it is a principle in their science that all things find their level;which I deny,and say,on the contrary,that it is the true principle that all things are finding their level,like water in a storm.'-Coleridge's Table-Talk ,17th May,1833.

9.Letters to Malthus ,p.96;and see the frequently quoted passage where he complains that Malthus has taken his book as more 'practical'than he had intended it to be,and speaks of his method of imagining 'strong cases.'--Ibid.167.

10.Works ,p.40n.(ch.ii).

11.Works ,p.53(ch.v),and p.124(ch xvi),where he quotes from the Wealth of Nations (M'Culloch),p.390(bk v,ch.ii,art.3).

12.Works ,p.131.

13.Wealth of Nations (M'Culloch)p.31(bk.i,ch.viii).

14.Works ,p.41(ch.ii).

15.Wealth of Nations (M'Culloch),p.36.

16.Works ,p.51(ch.v).

17.Letters to Malthus ,p.98.

18.Works ,p.239(ch.xxxi,added in third edition,1823).

19.Ibid.p.50(ch.v).

20.Ibid.p.52.

21.Ibid.p.15(ch.i,sec.ii).

22.There is,indeed,a difficulty which I happily need not discuss.Undoubtedly the doctrine of gluts was absurd.There is,of course,no limit to the amount of wealth which can be used or exchanged.But there certainly seems to be a great difficulty in effecting such a readjustment of the industrial system as is implied in increased production of wealth;and the disposition to save may at a given time be greater than the power of finding profitable channels for employing wealth.This involves economical questions beyond my ability to answer,and happily not here relevant.

23.Letters to Malthus ,p.101.

24.Ibid.p.52.

25.Works ,p.174.

26.Works ,p.66(ch.vi).

27.Works ,p.240(ch.xxxi).

28.Ricardo,Works ,p.xxiv.

29.Menger's Das Recht auf den vollen Arbeitsertrag (1891),p.38.

30.Works ,p.228(ch.xxviii).

31.Works ,pp.29,60.

32.Ibid.p.166.

33.Works ,p.170(ch.xx).

34.Ibid.p.7.

35.So he tells Malthus (Lettres ,pp.173,174)that the buyer has 'the least to do in the world.'with the regulation of prices.It is all the competition of the sellers.'Demand'influences price for the moment,but 'supply follows close upon its heels,and takes up the regulation of price.'

36.Works ,p.234.

37.Bentham's Works ,p.498.

38.Bentham's Works ,p.498.

39.Works ,p.250(ch.xxxii).

40.Stewart's Works ,x,34.

41.See Bagehot's remarks upon J.S.Mill's version of this doctrine in Economic Studies ;chapter on 'Cost of Production.'

42.Another illustration of the need of such considerations is given,as has been pointed out,in Adam Smith's famous chapter upon the variation in the rate of wages.He assumes that the highest wages will be paid for the least agreeable employments,whereas,in fact,the least agreeable are generally the worst paid.His doctrine,that is,is only true upon a tacit assumption as to the character and position of the labourer,which must be revised before the rule can be applied.

43.J.S.Mill,too,in his Political Economy makes the foundation of private property 'the right of producers to what they themselves have produced.'(Bk.ii,ch.ii,§1).

44.Mr Edwin Cannan,in Production and Distribution (1894)p.383.

45.A definition,says Burke in his essay on the 'Sublime and Beautiful'(introduction)'seems rather to follow than to precede our inquiry,of which it ought to be considered as the result.'

46.Works ,p.34(chap.ii).Rent is there defined as the sum paid for the original and indestructible powers of the soil.