Note.—Robert Torrens, the soldier economist, began his literary career with 'The Economist Refuted' (1808), in answer to William Spence, who in 1807 tried to persuade his countrymen that Napoleon's blockade mattered little to them, Britain being 'independent of commerce.' In the winter of 1810-11, Torrens was Major Commandant of the Royal Marines, doing garrison duty on the island of Anholt in the Kattegat. The frost gave him time to re-read his Adam Smith and write his 'Essay on Money and Paper Currency' (publ. 1812). In his 'Essay on the External Corn Trade' (see above, page 65), Torrens characterizes the writings of Malthus as suggestive and candid and full of 'facts,' but ill-reasoned and inconsistent. Mr. Malthus, he says, scarcely ever embraced a principle which he did not subsequently abandon; his Essay on Population was a plagiarism from Wallace; and he refuted it himself by introducing the influence of Moral Restraint; in regard to Corn Bounties and in regard to the Currency, his later writings have contradicted his earlier. (Pref. pp. viii. to xii.) Torrens compared the Political Economy of Malthus with that of Ricardo, greatly to the advantage of the latter, in his 'Production of Wealth' (1821). See 'Malthus and his Work,' pp. 265-6. Compare also Note to Letter XLIV.
Note.—Robert Torrens, the soldier economist, began his literary career with 'The Economist Refuted' (1808), in answer to William Spence, who in 1807 tried to persuade his countrymen that Napoleon's blockade mattered little to them, Britain being 'independent of commerce.' In the winter of 1810-11, Torrens was Major Commandant of the Royal Marines, doing garrison duty on the island of Anholt in the Kattegat. The frost gave him time to re-read his Adam Smith and write his 'Essay on Money and Paper Currency' (publ. 1812). In his 'Essay on the External Corn Trade' (see above, page 65), Torrens characterizes the writings of Malthus as suggestive and candid and full of 'facts,' but ill-reasoned and inconsistent. Mr. Malthus, he says, scarcely ever embraced a principle which he did not subsequently abandon; his Essay on Population was a plagiarism from Wallace; and he refuted it himself by introducing the influence of Moral Restraint; in regard to Corn Bounties and in regard to the Currency, his later writings have contradicted his earlier. (Pref. pp. viii. to xii.) Torrens compared the Political Economy of Malthus with that of Ricardo, greatly to the advantage of the latter, in his 'Production of Wealth' (1821). See 'Malthus and his Work,' pp. 265-6. Compare also Note to Letter XLIV.
London,4 April, 1815.
My dear Sir,
You think that my theory of a diminishing rate of profit in consequence of being obliged to cultivate poorer lands is affected by my admission that there will be a greater quantity of surplus produce and a greater money value from the old land. This would be true if any part of either the additional quantity or additional value belonged to the owner of stock. You, however, expressly say that this additional value or quantity 'will remain to the farmer and landlord.['] Before my theory is affected it must be shown that the whole will not remain with the landlord, as, if the farmer gets no share of it, his rate of profits cannot be raised.
I agree with you that, when the exchangeable value of corn rises, 'the whole quantity of corn in the country will exchange for a greater number of coats than before, and consequently that there will be both the power and will to purchase, with the raw produce of the country, a greater quantity of manufactured and foreign commodities.' In a progressive country I can easily conceive this power and will to be doubled or trebled, as well as the commodities on which they are exercised; but this admission does not affect the question of profits. There may be a great demand for home and foreign commodities without their price being permanently raised, as no new difficulties may attend their production. When America becomes populous and wealthy in the same proportion as the most wealthy country of Europe, will not her corn exchange at a higher value both for money and commodities, although it will have much increased in quantity? Will not all foreign and home commodities in America be double ortreble their present amount, yet will not the profits of stock be less there than they now are? On this question I could not have thought that the slightest doubt could exist; all theory, all experience is in favour of this opinion.
Whilst the labour of ten persons employed on land paying no rent can produce one hundred quarters of wheat, it appears to me possible and probable that one-third more labour might profitably be employed on that land, not indeed in producing only one hundred quarters of wheat, but an additional quantity more than the additional labourers would consume. Whilst the labour of ten men can produce one hundred quarters of wheat, it is difficult to suppose profits only ten per cent., and more difficult to conceive that many more men might not be profitably employed in increasing the produce off such land. In theory, land which yields no rent, according to your supposition, would have more and more capital profitably expended on it, whilst the additional quantity of produce obtained exceeded [the] quantity paid to the additional labourers. Capital [might] be so expended, whilst the profits of stock gave any return, not ten per cent. but one per cent. or a half per cent.
No doubt money varies more slowly than other commodities for the reason you mention; nevertheless its value, like every other foreign commodity, depends on the labour and expense of bringing it to market.
I expect some friends to dine with me on Saturday, and on Monday I am engaged out to dinner; yet, if the weather is tolerably fine, I will be with you by the time you leave chapel on Sunday, but I must get home next day. If this is not quite convenient, pray let me know.
Ever yours,David Ricardo.
London,17 April, 1815.
My dear Sir,
You, I think, agree with Mr. Torrens that a rise in the price of corn will be followed by a rise in the price of home commodities; but your theory requires that there should be no rise in the price of those commodities on which the wages of labour are expended, for, if they rose in the same proportion as corn, there could be no fall in the corn wages of labour. Is it not, however, very improbable that all manufactures should rise at home, and yet that those on which [the wages of] labour are expended should not rise? Is not the price of soap, candles, etc., though foreign commodities[102], necessarily affected by the rise in the price of those home goods which are given in exchange for them. Mr. Torrens' theory, however, on this part of the subject appears to me defective, as I think that the price of commodities will be very slightly affected either by a rise or fall in the price of corn. If so, every rise in the price of corn must affect profits on manufactures; and it is impossible that agricultural profits can materially deviate from them. I will, however, suppose that you and Mr. Torrens are correct, and that commodities do rise in price with every increased price of corn. The value of fixed capital as well as of circulating capital employed on the land will then rise also; and, although the money value of the produce should be increased on the old land, it will still bear the same proportion to the money value of the capital employed; and, as this produce will be divided in different proportions between the landlord and the farmer, the rate of profits of the latter will fall. For the purpose of examining the effects, let us suppose that all commodities rise, with the rise of the price of corn, excepting those only on which the wages of labour are expended, and that in consequence the corn wages of labour fall. Suppose the price of corn £4, and that on the old land the labour of eight men was necessary to raise eighty quarters of corn, that no rent was paid, and that each labourer had eight quarters annually for his wages, of which one half was expended on commodities. The gain of the farmer, when the price was £4, would be £64 or sixteen quarters, and, besides his fixed capital, horses, seed, etc., he would require the value of sixty-four quarters, or £256, to pay the annual wages of his labourers; consequently his profits would be in the proportion of £25 to £100 of wages, for 256:64::100:25. Now, suppose corn to rise to £4 10s., wages would vary only 10s.on four quarters, and consequently would rise to £34 annually per man, or £272 on the old land; but the eighty quarters of corn would sell for £360, leaving a produce of £88 to be divided between farmer and landlord; and 88 would be to 272 as 32 to 100.
But on the new land the labour of eight men and a half might be required to obtain eighty quarters or £360; the labour of eight-and-a-half men would cost, at £34 each, £289; consequently the profit would be £71, which is to the whole expense of £360 as £19·7 to £100.
£100 capital or expenses on the old land will yield£32£100 capital or expenses on the new land " "£19·7.———Rent£[1]2·3.
It appears then that the profit on new land, which regulates the profit on all other land, would be 19·7 per cent. when the price of corn was £4 10s.It was 25 per cent. when the price was £4.
If indeed under the same circumstances we had supposed the price of corn to rise to £6, then profits would be increased, and would be much more than 25 per cent.; but some adequate cause must be shown for [such] rise, and it cannot be arbitrarily assumed. Your theory supposes too what is impossible, that the demand for manufactures [could] increase in the same proportion as the demand for [corn] at the very time that more men are employed on the land to obtain a less proportion of produce. The whole appears to me a labyrinth of difficulties; one is no sooner got over than another presents itself, and so on in endless succession. Let me entreat you to give my simple doctrine fair consideration, and you must allow that it accounts for all the phenomena in an easy natural manner.
I yesterday met Mr. Smyth[103], your friend, and Mr. Torrens at Mr. Phillips'. I passed a very pleasant day. Mr. Smyth was exceedingly agreeable. I like him very much. The corn question was occasionally introduced, and I had an opportunity of stating some of my objections to Mr. Torrens' theory. I have no reason to think that I convinced him. I defended the use of the word depreciation in the sense [in] which you had used it; and I believe I had every one with me. I fancy that his arguments in his book on currency are founded on the sense in which he uses the word. We spoke on the other points of difference between him and you. Mr. Smyth, Mr. Phillips, and Mr. Torrens have agreed to dine with me on Wednesday, which has induced me to write to you a day or two sooner than I otherwise should have done that I might express my wish that you would join us. If you will, we will dine as late as you please. There will be a bed at your service, and I need not say that you will add considerably to my pleasure.
Yours very truly,David Ricardo.
Note.—In many of his speeches, e.g. June 12, 1822, Ricardo refers to the ambiguity of the word 'depreciation'. He himself always uses it to indicate that the currency had fallen below its own standard, as e.g. when coins are clipped. Others used it of a change in thevalueof the currency as purchasing a larger or a smaller quantity of goods. A currency might be depreciated in the first sense when it was actually, through counteracting causes, the opposite (or appreciated) in the second. Malthus, in Edinburgh Review, Feb. 1811, had used it in the first sense. (See pp. 341, 356, 365.) Torrens, in his 'Essay on Money,' 1812, had used it in the second. (See pp. 98, 99.) The word 'appreciation' occurs in Tooke's 'High and Low Prices' (1823), Part I. p. 76. Tooke himself distinguishes depreciation of the Currency (the first of the above senses) from depreciation of Money (the second of them); (l. c. p. 8.)
Note.—In many of his speeches, e.g. June 12, 1822, Ricardo refers to the ambiguity of the word 'depreciation'. He himself always uses it to indicate that the currency had fallen below its own standard, as e.g. when coins are clipped. Others used it of a change in thevalueof the currency as purchasing a larger or a smaller quantity of goods. A currency might be depreciated in the first sense when it was actually, through counteracting causes, the opposite (or appreciated) in the second. Malthus, in Edinburgh Review, Feb. 1811, had used it in the first sense. (See pp. 341, 356, 365.) Torrens, in his 'Essay on Money,' 1812, had used it in the second. (See pp. 98, 99.) The word 'appreciation' occurs in Tooke's 'High and Low Prices' (1823), Part I. p. 76. Tooke himself distinguishes depreciation of the Currency (the first of the above senses) from depreciation of Money (the second of them); (l. c. p. 8.)
London,21 April, 1815.
My dear Sir,
I was sorry you could not join our party on Wednesday. Mr. Smyth has left a pleasing impression on the minds of all those who met him, and I had every reason to confirm me in the favourable opinion which I had formed of him at our first meeting. Mr. Torrens is a very gentlemanly man. He had sent me his book on bullion before he came, and I fear that too much of the conversation was bestowed on the differences between his opinion and mine on the subject of paper currency and the exchanges. The latter he does not appear to me correctly to understand. I insisted on the consistency of your former and present opinions on the bullion question, and asked him from whence he had derived his knowledge of your views on that subject. He said that Dr. Crombie[104]and you had met purposely to discuss the question, and from him he had understood that you ascribed the whole effects on the price of bullion to the abundance of paper. He, as well as Monsieur Say, finds it difficult to support his opinions and answer objections in conversation—he says all such discussions should be carried on in writing....
On Saturday I shall meet you at the King of Clubs, to which I am invited by Mr. Whishaw, and on Sunday I wish you and Mrs. Malthus will oblige Mrs. Ricardo and me with your company to dinner. If you can I will ask Mr. Whishaw and Mr. Smyth to meet you. Perhaps too you will breakfast with me on Saturday or Sunday morning.
It appears to me that my table is applicable to all cases in which the relative price of corn rises from more labour being required to produce it, and under no other circumstances can there be a rise, however great the demand may be, unless commodities fall in value from less labour being required for their production. It is not probable that the relative price of corn will fall so low with an abundant capital in the country as when capital was very limited, but, if it could, the same effects on profits and on rent would follow, as it would demonstrate that land only of the best quality was in cultivation. You agree with me that if a large tract of rich land were added to the Island it would restore the state contemplated in my table. Though we agree in the conclusion we differ materially in our opinion of the means by which it would be brought about. You think that 'before any fall of price had taken place capital would be removing fast from the old land,and from manufactures,'—I think that capital would go from the old land to manufactures, because a given quantity of food only being required, that quantity could be raised on the rich land added to the Island with much less capital than was employed on the old, and consequently all the surplus would go to [manu]factures to procure other enjoyments forthe so[ciety[105]], and profits on the land would rise at the expense of the rent of the landlord, whilst the cheaper price of corn would raise the profits on all manufacturing capital. I confess it appears to me impossible that under the circumstances you have supposed the relative value of corn would fall, not from the facility of procuring it, but from a rise in the value of manufactures. You suppose that corn would remain at the same price whilst manufactures rose in price,—I on the contrary think that the price of manufactures would continue nearly stationary, whilst the price of corn would fall. Is not this the natural consequence of more capital being employed on manufactures and less on agriculture? Have you not too uniformly supported the opinion that a fall in the price of corn will occasion a fall in the price of commodities? If they act on each other as you think, but to which I do not agree, how can manufactures rise in price with a stationary price of corn? I should have thought that on your principles such an effect would be deemed impossible.
Ever truly yours,David Ricardo.
(Addressed to Claverton House, near Bath.)
Upper Brook Street,27th June, 1815.
My dear Sir,
I have been for two or three days at Tunbridge Wells, and have been agreeably surprised to-day on my arrival in London, to hear of the great events which are taking place in France in consequence of the great victory obtained by the Duke of Wellington and his brave army over Bonaparte. With the deposition of Bonaparte I hope there may be no other obstacles to peace, and that we may at length be rewarded for the blood and treasure which wehave expended with a long period of tranquil[l]ity, which I have no doubt will also prove a long period of prosperity. I think with Mr. Whitbread[106]that great credit is due to ministers for the energy which they have displayed in the prosecution of this contest. Having determined on war, their preparations have been on such a scale as to give from the commencement the best hopes of success, and we appear at last to have adopted the wise policy of making one grand effort in preference to a series of puny efforts, each just sufficient to keep the contest alive without making the least advance to its ultimate object.
The effect on the price of Omnium has been no more than what might have been expected. I am sorry that you have not profited by the rise. As for myself, I have all my stock, by which I mean I have all my money[,] invested in Stock; and this is as great an advantage as ever I expect or wish to make by a rise. I have been a considerable gainer by the loan[107]; in the first place by replacing the stock which I had sold before the contract with the minister [sic] at a much lower price, secondly by a moderate gain on such part of the loan as I ventured to take over and above my stock. This portion I sold at a premium of from 3 to 5 per cent., and I have every reason to be well contented. Perhaps no loan was ever more generally profitable to the Stock Exchange.
Now for a little of our old subject. It appears to me that there are two causes which may cause a rise of prices, one the depreciation of money, the other the difficulty of producing. The latter can in no case be advantageous to a society. It is always a sign of prosperity but never the cause of it. Depreciation of money may be beneficial, because it generally favours that class who are disposed to accumulate, but I should say that it augmented riches by diminishing happiness, that it was advantageous only by occasioning a great pressure on the labouring classes and on those who lived on fixed incomes. You and I concur in this opinion, for you say you are convinced that there are unobserved advantages attending the high price of corn and labour 'when not arising solely from difficulty of production,' [by] which I think you imply that no such advantages attend high prices if attended with difficulty of production.
This opinion is, however, a little at variance with that which you have long been supporting, for you have said that the high price of corn and labour in this country at this time was an advantage, although it is universally allowed that that high price is mainly owing to difficulty of production. The farmers and shopkeepers may suffer very general distress from a sudden and general fall of prices; but I hold that this would be no criterion by which to judge of the general or permanent prosperity of a country.
The accounts in which I am at present engaged will I fear keep me in London till the very latter end of July. I shall very much regret if you quit Bath without my seeing you. I quite depended on having a visit from you at Gatcomb this year, and I yet hope that it may be accomplished. I shall certainly leave London the very earliest day possible.
The price of labour in America appears to me enormously high as compared with the price of wheat; but we should not fail to remember how very low the exchangeable value of wheat is there, and how much of it must be given for the manufactured necessaries and comforts of life....
Ever truly yours,David Ricardo.
Gatcomb Park,30 July, 1815.
My dear Sir,
I bore with great patience the fatigues of the last fortnight in London, in the hope that on my arrival at Gatcomb I should have the pleasure of your company for a few days previously to your return to London. It was a great disappointment to me to learn that you would be travelling to London the very day after I quitted it, and I see little prospect of having a visit from you here for some time to come, as your convenience or inclination will probably lead you to a different part of the country next year.
I most cordially join with you in the wish that the victory of the Duke of Wellington will be the means of giving Europe some permanent repose. There appears every probability that it will be attended with that happy effect, and I should hope that the late stormy times will afford instruction both to sovereigns and people, and will secure the world from the evils of anarchy as well as from those of tyranny and despotism.
David's ill health has induced us to take him from the Charterhouse....
Mr. Clerk, a neighbour of mine here in Gloucestershire and who is brother to the East India Director of that name, has just sent his son George to the East India College, and knowing my intimacy with you has called upon me to request me to write to you on behalf of his son, that in case he may st[and] in need of any friendly advice or assistance you [would have] the goodness to give it to him. I hope [I] am not taking too great a liberty in asking you to comply with his father's wishes.
The immense concerns in business which I have lately had on my mind had nearly banished all consideration of subjects connected with political economy from it. Those concerns are now settled, but they have given me incessantwork in arranging and balancing my accounts ever since I have been here. I recur now, however, with pleasure to corn, labour, and bullion. A really high price of corn is always an evil; in this opinion I think you would concur, because it is always occasioned by difficulty of production. I know of no other cause, and you allow difficulty of production not to be desirable in itself. In our own case the high bullion price of corn is not wholly owing to the barrenness of the land to be taken into cultivation, but from whatever cause it has arisen it cannot, I think, have enabled us to grant greater subsidies than we should otherwise have done, for subsidies as well as all services performed for us are paid for by the produce of the land and labour of the people of England. It surely is a palpable contradiction to say that our power of commanding services is increased, whilst our productions with which those services are paid are diminished. The principle may be true when confined to a few commodities of which we either have a monop[o]ly or peculiar facilities in the production of them, but as a general preposition it appears to me to be at variance with the best established doctrines.
If a free trade in corn were allowed with America I should not expect that the prices would differ more, here and there, than the expenses and profits of sending it;—as it is I am surprised the price should be so high. A high money price of wages is I think quite natural.
Ever yours,David Ricardo.
Gatcomb Park,10th Sept., 1815.
My dear Sir,
Nothing could be more unlucky than our missing each other as we did this year. I should think there would be no obstacle to our leaving town a little earliernext year, when I hope we shall at length have the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Malthus and you at Gatcomb.
It is the general remark in our part of the country that a finer season was never remembered. The rain, of which we have certainly had a deficiency, has generally come at night, and the days which have followed have been beautiful. The temptation to enjoy it has been so great that I have been incessantly out with some one or other of my friends who have been staying with me, either riding or walking, which makes such inroads on my time that I find I have much less leisure here for reading and study than I have in London. Before I came here I often saw Mr. Grenfell[108], who is very warm on the subject of the Bank and the advantageous bargains which it has always made with government, as well for the management of the national debt, the composition which it has hitherto paid for stamps, as for the compensation which government has received in the way of loan for enormous average deposits left with the Bank. I am quite of his opinion, and indeed I go much further; I think the Bank an unnecessary establishment, getting rich by those profits which fairly belong to the public. I cannot help considering the issuing of paper money as a privilege which belongs exclusively to the State; I regard it as a sort of seignorage, and I am convinced, if the principles of currency were rightly understood, that commissioners might be appointed, independent of all ministerial control, who should be the sole issuers of paper money,—by which I think a profit of from two to three millions might be secured to the public, at the same time that we should be protected from the abuses of the countrybanks, who are the cause of much mischief all over the kingdom. These commissioners should also have the management of the public debt, and should act as bankers to all the different public departments. They might invest the eleven millions which is the average of public deposits in Exchequer Bills, a part of which might be sold whenever occasion required. This of course (at least all of it) could not be effected till the expiration of the Bank Charter in 1833; but it is never too soon to give due consideration to important principles, which might be recognized, though not yet acted on. In looking over the papers which have from time to time been laid before Parliament, I think it might clearly be proved that the profits of the bank have been enormous. I should think they must have a hoard nearly equal to their capital. By their charter they are bound to make an annual division of their profits and to lay a statement of their accounts before the proprietors; but they appear to set all law at defiance. I always enjoy any attack upon the Bank, and [if I] had sufficient courage I would be a party to it.
Though I have been thinking on this subject lately, I am not less interested about our old subject, of the advantages or disadvantages of high prices for raw produce. If I agreed with Mr. Torrens that such high prices were accompanied with a rise in the prices of commodities, and, if I thought that such rise would not preclude the usual exchanges with foreign countries, I should of course agree with you that with such general high prices we should command a greater quantity of foreign commodities in exchange for a given quantity of ours; but I cannot admit in the first place that commodities would rise because corn rose[109]; and, secondly, if they did so rise there are but very few which we could sell in equal quantity at the advanced price to foreigners; and, if we sold less to them, we could buy lessof them, and thus would our general commerce suffer. I can see great advantages attending low general prices but none in high prices. On this subject we are not likely to agree. I hope you are diligently employed and that early in the year we shall see something new from your pen. I have some curiosity to see a pamphlet just advertised[110], in the title page of which your name is mentioned.
Ever yours,David Ricardo.
... Have you seen Monsieur Say's [Catec]hisme d'Economie Politique? He has softened but not [expung]ed the objectionable definitions.
Note.—Correspondence between Ricardo and J. B. Say is given in the 'Œuvres Diverses' of the latter, published after his death (Guillaumin, 1848), with notes by Ch. Comte, Daire, and Horace Say. J. B. Say (born 1767) was the son of a Lyons merchant, of Huguenot origin. When a boy, he was sent with his brother Horace to learn business in London, where he was struck, amongst other things, by the fact that his Croydon landlord built up one of the two windows of his lodgings to escape window tax. Having gained familiarity with the English language and English ways he returned to France in 1789 and entered the employment of a Life Insurance Company, the manager of which (Clavière) lent him a copy of the 'Wealth of Nations,' not yet translated into French. The reading of it made him an economist for life, as it did for Ricardo ten years later. After serving in the revolutionary army in 1792, he left commerce for journalism. His chief book, Le Traité de l'Economie Politique, appeared in 1803. Too independent to please Napoleon, he was forced to quit his new profession for his old; and his commercial travelling landed him eventually at Geneva, where he made the acquaintance of Necker, Madame de Stael, and Benjamin Constant. He came back to France (to Auchy, Pas de Calais) to spin cotton, retiring with a moderate fortune in 1813. After the Peace he was sent by Government to report on the economical condition of England. He wascordially received by Ricardo, Bentham, and other economists; and on his return to Paris narrated with pride to his audiences at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers that the Glasgow professors had made him sit in the chair of Adam Smith. After an active life of teaching and writing, he died in Paris, 15th November, 1832.Ricardo writes to him from Gatcomb Park on 18th Aug., 1815, thanking him for the copy of the (first edition of the) 'Catechisme de l'Economie Politique,' which he had just sent. Though complimenting him highly on the work, he thinks that Say has not, even yet, with sufficient clearness distinguished Value from Utility. No doubt to have value a commodity must beuseful, but it is thedifficultyof its production that is the sole measure of its value. 'The wealthiest man is he who has most values, and who is able, by giving them in exchange, to procure himself not the things which he himself and everybody else regard as the most desirable, and which can be had at a low price, but the things that are difficult to produce and consequently dear. A man is rich not by the moderation of his desires, but by the quantity of commodities that he possesses.' Say has also, in Ricardo's opinion, forgotten sometimes that the growth of the capital of a manufacturer cannot be safely estimated in money if we do not allow for the change in the value of money. Ricardo concludes: 'The pleasure which I take in reading and studying good works on political economy has not diminished since I saw you. I should devote all my time to the discussion of points which seem to me to need further elucidation, if I had any talent for composition. However, I have ventured to publish the pamphlet[111]which I sent you, and I should be glad to know your opinion on the doctrine which I maintain in it in relation to the rent of land and the rate of profits, in opposition to Mr. Malthus. I learn from Mr. Mill that several persons in this country do not understand me because I have not explained my views at sufficient length; and he is trying to induce me to undertake an explanation of them from the beginning and at greater length; but I fear that the undertaking is beyond my powers.' (Œuvres Diverses de Say, pp. 409-11. Ricardo wrote in English, but in this and the other cases the editors give only the French.)Say's answer follows (pp. 411-13), 2nd Dec., 1815: 'Nous nous occupons heureusement vous et moi de choses de tous les tempsplûtot que de celles du moment actuel, qui ne sont pas gaies, malgré les fêtes que l'on donne pour faire croire aux peuples qu'ils sont heureux.' Going to the subject of value, he says he didnotsay Utility was the measure of Value, but 'the value that men attach to a thing is the measure of the utility they find in it;' moreover he had not maintained the Stoical doctrine, 'the fewer wants, the greater wealth,' but had simply said that a man is the richer if all the things he wants (whatever they be) are cheap instead of dear, and would be richest of all if he had abundance of everything without any cost at all. He allows that Ricardo is right in regard to the growth of the manufacturer's capital, and promises to introduce the qualification suggested by Ricardo in his next edition. In the controversy between Malthus and Ricardo he finds it difficult to take a side, for he cannot for his part exclude from the question of profits 'the talent and industrial capacity of the man who brings out the resources of a land or a capital;' the profit inherent merely in land or in capital seems to him unimportant in comparison with the profit due to the source described. But he says he is too timid to insist on his opinion, and will wait for Ricardo's full explanations in the larger work. 'How I envy your lot, to study political economy in your beautiful retreat of Gatcomb Park! I shall never forget the too short moments I passed there, nor the charms of your conversation.'
Note.—Correspondence between Ricardo and J. B. Say is given in the 'Œuvres Diverses' of the latter, published after his death (Guillaumin, 1848), with notes by Ch. Comte, Daire, and Horace Say. J. B. Say (born 1767) was the son of a Lyons merchant, of Huguenot origin. When a boy, he was sent with his brother Horace to learn business in London, where he was struck, amongst other things, by the fact that his Croydon landlord built up one of the two windows of his lodgings to escape window tax. Having gained familiarity with the English language and English ways he returned to France in 1789 and entered the employment of a Life Insurance Company, the manager of which (Clavière) lent him a copy of the 'Wealth of Nations,' not yet translated into French. The reading of it made him an economist for life, as it did for Ricardo ten years later. After serving in the revolutionary army in 1792, he left commerce for journalism. His chief book, Le Traité de l'Economie Politique, appeared in 1803. Too independent to please Napoleon, he was forced to quit his new profession for his old; and his commercial travelling landed him eventually at Geneva, where he made the acquaintance of Necker, Madame de Stael, and Benjamin Constant. He came back to France (to Auchy, Pas de Calais) to spin cotton, retiring with a moderate fortune in 1813. After the Peace he was sent by Government to report on the economical condition of England. He wascordially received by Ricardo, Bentham, and other economists; and on his return to Paris narrated with pride to his audiences at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers that the Glasgow professors had made him sit in the chair of Adam Smith. After an active life of teaching and writing, he died in Paris, 15th November, 1832.
Ricardo writes to him from Gatcomb Park on 18th Aug., 1815, thanking him for the copy of the (first edition of the) 'Catechisme de l'Economie Politique,' which he had just sent. Though complimenting him highly on the work, he thinks that Say has not, even yet, with sufficient clearness distinguished Value from Utility. No doubt to have value a commodity must beuseful, but it is thedifficultyof its production that is the sole measure of its value. 'The wealthiest man is he who has most values, and who is able, by giving them in exchange, to procure himself not the things which he himself and everybody else regard as the most desirable, and which can be had at a low price, but the things that are difficult to produce and consequently dear. A man is rich not by the moderation of his desires, but by the quantity of commodities that he possesses.' Say has also, in Ricardo's opinion, forgotten sometimes that the growth of the capital of a manufacturer cannot be safely estimated in money if we do not allow for the change in the value of money. Ricardo concludes: 'The pleasure which I take in reading and studying good works on political economy has not diminished since I saw you. I should devote all my time to the discussion of points which seem to me to need further elucidation, if I had any talent for composition. However, I have ventured to publish the pamphlet[111]which I sent you, and I should be glad to know your opinion on the doctrine which I maintain in it in relation to the rent of land and the rate of profits, in opposition to Mr. Malthus. I learn from Mr. Mill that several persons in this country do not understand me because I have not explained my views at sufficient length; and he is trying to induce me to undertake an explanation of them from the beginning and at greater length; but I fear that the undertaking is beyond my powers.' (Œuvres Diverses de Say, pp. 409-11. Ricardo wrote in English, but in this and the other cases the editors give only the French.)
Say's answer follows (pp. 411-13), 2nd Dec., 1815: 'Nous nous occupons heureusement vous et moi de choses de tous les tempsplûtot que de celles du moment actuel, qui ne sont pas gaies, malgré les fêtes que l'on donne pour faire croire aux peuples qu'ils sont heureux.' Going to the subject of value, he says he didnotsay Utility was the measure of Value, but 'the value that men attach to a thing is the measure of the utility they find in it;' moreover he had not maintained the Stoical doctrine, 'the fewer wants, the greater wealth,' but had simply said that a man is the richer if all the things he wants (whatever they be) are cheap instead of dear, and would be richest of all if he had abundance of everything without any cost at all. He allows that Ricardo is right in regard to the growth of the manufacturer's capital, and promises to introduce the qualification suggested by Ricardo in his next edition. In the controversy between Malthus and Ricardo he finds it difficult to take a side, for he cannot for his part exclude from the question of profits 'the talent and industrial capacity of the man who brings out the resources of a land or a capital;' the profit inherent merely in land or in capital seems to him unimportant in comparison with the profit due to the source described. But he says he is too timid to insist on his opinion, and will wait for Ricardo's full explanations in the larger work. 'How I envy your lot, to study political economy in your beautiful retreat of Gatcomb Park! I shall never forget the too short moments I passed there, nor the charms of your conversation.'
My dear Sir,
By facility of production I do not mean to consider the productiveness of the soil only, but the skill, machinery, and labour joined to the natural fertility of the earth. It does not therefore follow that because Otaheite[112]has an abundance of fertile land profits should be there at the highest rate, because the skill and the means of abridging labour may in Europe more than compensate this natural advantage of Otaheite. The question is this: If part of the skill and capital of England were employed in Otaheite to produce 100,000 quarters of corn, would not the personsemploying that capital obtain greater profits in Otaheite than they would if they employed the same capital for the same purpose here, and would not rent be lower there than here? You must at any rate allow that the quantity of corn produced with a given quantity of capital, supposing the same skill to be employed, must be greater there than here, or there is no meaning in fertility of soil. You must allow too that in proportion to the fertility of Otaheite and to its extent compared with the population will be the lowness of rent, notwithstanding its abundant rate of produce. I can easilyconceivethat, with the imperfect tillage the people of Otaheite now give their land, the population may be just sufficiently numerous to require that the whole of their lands should be in cultivation, and consequently that they should bear a rent; but let a hundred Europeans only join them with our improved machinery and perfectly skilled in husbandry, and the immediate consequence would be that three quarters of their lands would for a time become perfectly useless to them, as the quarter might produce them more food than all the inhabitants could possibly consume. Now I ask whether it be possible that three quarters of the land of a country can be suffered to pass from a state of tillage to a state of nature without occasioning a fall in rents? If land is less in demand, must not the rent of it fall? If you say no, there is no truth in the proposition that value depends upon the proportion between supply and demand. Now suppose England in the state in which I have been fancying Otaheite; and she is actually in that state, all or most of her land being in cultivation; and suppose further that there is another country totally unknown to us whose skill and machinery in husbandry as far surpasses ours as ours does that of the Otaheiteans. If a hundred of these persons were to come amongst us with their capital, skill, etc., would not the same consequences follow as I have juststated? Now every improvement in machinery is precisely on a small scale what I have been here supposing on a large scale; and I am quite astonished that you should yet maintain that 'universally where land is limited in quantity, the facility of production upon it will go mainly to rent, and the soil of a country might be of such fertility as to yield sixtyfold instead of eight or ten, and yet the profits of stock be only six per cent. and the wages of labour both nominally and really low.' Land, like everything else, rises or falls in proportion to the demand for it; every improvement which shall enable you to raise the same quantity of produce on a less quantity of land or, which is the same thing, a larger quantity of produce on the same quantity of land cannot increase the demand for land and therefore cannot raise rents.
I do not clearly see the distinction which you think important between productiveness of industry and productiveness of capital. Every machine which abridges labour adds to the productiveness of industry, but it adds also to the productiveness of capital. England with machinery and with a given capital will obtain a greater real net produce than Otaheite with the same capital without machinery, whether it be in manufactures or in the produce of the soil. It will do so because it employs much fewer hands to obtain the same produce. Industry is more productive; so is capital. It appears to me that one is a necessary consequence of the other, and that the opinion which I have advanced and which you are combat[t]ing is that in the progress of society independently of all improvements in skill and machinery the produce of industry constantly diminishes as far as the land is concerned, and consequently capital becomes less productive. That this diminution of produce is beneficial to all owners of land, but that it is so at the expense of manufacturers, amongst which [sic] I include farmers, first by renderingthe commodities which they manufacture of less exchangeable value than they before were for corn, and secondly by raising the cost of production by raising the price of labour.
I shall put this letter in the Post Office in London, where I am going to-morrow for a few days. I have been writing, in my unconnected and confused style, my opinions on the profits of the Bank and on the advantages of a paper and nothing but a paper currency. I am too little pleased with it to think of publishing. The whole is too little for a pamphlet. Mr. Grenfell is, I think, anxious that something should be said about the Bank before the meeting of Parliament, and I too wish some able hand would undertake it.
I am always glad to hear that you are preparing for the press; for, though I do not always agree in opinion with you, I am sure that your writings will contribute towards the progress of a science in which I take great interest. I should be more pleased that we did not so materially differ. If I am too theoretical (which I really believe is is the case), you I think are too practical. There are so many combinations and so many operating causes in Political Economy that there is great danger in appealing to experience in favour of a particular doctrine, unless we are sure that all the causes of variation are seen and their effects duly estimated. Mr. Whishaw and Mr. Warburton[113]have been at Mr. Smith's for some time. I have been absent from home unfortunately, and have seen but little of them. I yesterday dined with Mr. Whishaw; he talked of leaving Mr. Smith immediately....
Yours,David Ricardo.
7th Oct., 1815.
[Not dated or headed, but fastened to preceding.]
[Oct. 1815?]
My dear Sir,
I have an account before me of the capital actually employed on a farm of 200 acres in Essex. It amounts to £3433 or about £17 per acre[114], of which not more than £1100 or £1200 is of that description which is not subject to the same variation of value as the produce of the land itself, for £2200 consists of the value of the seeds in the ground, the advances for labour, the horses and live stock, etc. etc. If then the money value of the produce from the land should fallfrom facility of productionit must ever continue to bear a greater ratio to the whole money value of the capital employed on the land, for there will be a great increase of average produce per acre, whilst the fall in money value will be common to both capital and produce, and it cannot therefore be true that rent, profits, and wages can allreallyfall at the same time.
The effect of high or low wages on profits has always been distinctly recognized by me:—till the population increases to the proportion which the increased capital can employ, wages will rise, and may absorb a larger portion of the whole produce. But this effect will only take place with an increase of capital, and has nothing to do with new facilities of production. Wages do not depend upon the quantity of a commodity which a day's labour will produce, and I cannot help thinking you quite incorrect when you say that the natural consequence of the facility of production being so increased that a day's labour will produce 4 measures of corn, cloth and cotton instead of 2 measures, will be that 4 measures of corn, cloth and cotton will be worth only the price of a day'slabour instead of 2. It appears to me that, if, instead of 4, 10 measures could be produced by a day's labour, no rise would take place in wages, no greater portion of corn, cloth or cotton would be given to the labourer, unless a portion of the increased produce were employed as capital, and then the rise in wages would be in proportion to the new demand for labour, and not at all in proportion to the increase in the quantity of commodities produced. This increase would be exclusively enjoyed by the owner of stock, and, if he consumed in his family the whole increased produce, without augmenting his capital, wages would remain stationary, and not be in any way affected by the increased facility of production.
I cannot agree with your proposition, namely, [']That the means of employing capital profitably can never co-exist with an abundant capital and produce and a stationary population, on account of the necessary effect of such a state of things in increasing the real price of labour,' because I consider the rise of wages as by no means a necessary effect of an abundant capital and produce, for it may be accompanied with new facilities in procuring corn, and then wages even if they should rise would not lessen profits, they will only keep them lower than they otherwise would be. In the case which we were considering the other night, if every lady made her own shoes, a part of the capital now employed in making shoes by the shoemakers would be otherwise employed. The same labour would be bestowed in the production of other objects desirable to these lady shoemakers, who would have both the power and the will to purchase them from the savings which would accrue to them by employing their labour productively. There is a great difference between [the] common effects of an accumulation of capital, and the employing the same capital more productively. The first is generally attended with a rise of wages and a fall ofprofits for a time at least,—but the second may exist for an indefinite length of time without producing any such effects. In the case of great improvements in machinery,—capital is liberated for other employments and at the same time the labour necessary for those employments is also liberated,—so that no demand for additional labour will take place unless the increased production in consequence of the improvement should lead to further accumulation of capital, and then the effect on wages is to be ascribed to the accumulation of capital and not to the better employment of the same capital. If the population were to be stopped whilst accumulation continued the effects which you enumerate would undoubtedly follow, but this would arise from the demand for labour not being adequately supplied,—it would be the effect of accumulation which would operate so powerfully that it would be but slightly checked by the facility of production, but it would not by any means be the consequence of such facility.
It is true that the rate of profits depends upon the scanty or abundant supply of capital compared with the means of employing it profitably,—and these means will as you say upon the common principles of supply and demand be increased either by a diminution of capital or by an extension of the market for it. Our inquiry is in fact what the causes are of an extension of the market, and I hold that the most powerful, and the only one which operates permanently, is a reduction in the relative value of food. You appear to me to concede a little respecting demand being regulated by the power of production,—but you are yet very far from yielding all that I demand. I hope we shall meet this month, but I cannot yet say whether I can leave London.
Yours very truly,D. Ricardo.
London,17 Oct., 1815.
My dear Sir,
Mrs. Ricardo and I are sorry that Mrs. Malthus will be prevented from accompanying you when you pay us a visit at Gatcomb. We should have been very happy to have shown her some of the beauties of our county. When you come, perhaps you will bring your gun with you. Though I am no sportsman myself, I will endeavour to procure you the best sport that my influence can command.
I am very much obliged to you for the attention which you have given to my MS.[115]I am fully aware of the deficiency in the style and arrangement; those are faults which I shall never conquer. I will however use my best endeavours to elevate it to the very low standard to which you compare it[116]. It would be unpardonable to write worse with more practice.
I expected that you would not quite agree with my plan of abolishing the metals from circulation; but the grounds on which you object to it may I think be answered, and then your objections would I hope be removed. You fear that without a metallic circulation we could not on an emergency supply a large sum of bullion for the exigencies of the State. The fact is however against you, for we have supplied large sums when the metals have been absolutely banished from circulation. This has been the case during the whole Peninsular War. If indeed on my system the Bank could keep a less quantity of bullion intheir coffers to answer the demands of the public, the objection would be well founded; but the only difference would be that in one case their hoards would consist wholly of coined gold and silver, and in the other they would consist of the uncoined metals; but, on both systems, if the Bank paid their notes on demand the currency must be equally reduced in quantity, if gold and silver should become more valuable. That argument then may be used against a currency convertible at all, into specie or bullion, but does not apply to one more than the other. I think with you that on the whole silver would be a better standard than gold, particularly if paper only were used. All objections against its greater bulk would be removed.
I find I did misapprehend your illustration respecting profits from Otaheite; but our difference is still very serious. I most distinctly allow that any causes which tend to make capital less in demand will lower profits; but I contend that there are no causes which will for any length of time make capital less in demand, however abundant it may become, but a comparatively high price of food and labour,—that profits do notnecessarilyfall with the increase of the quantity of capital, because the demand for capital is infinite and [is] governed by the same law as population itself. They are both checked by the rise in the price of food and the consequent increase in the value of labour. If there were no such rise, what could prevent population and capital from increasing without limit? I acknowledge the effects of the great principle of supply and demand in every instance; but in this it appears to me that the demand will enlarge at the same rate as the supply if there be no difficulty on the score of food and raw produce. Fertility is, as you justly observe, the essence of high rents; and low rents are the necessary result of barrenness however scarce corn may be. I agree with you too that,in a country limited to 100,000 acres, all of the richest conceivable quantity, yet peopled and capital'd up to the utmost limits of its produce, the profits of stock and the wages of labour would both be very low, although the quantity of produce yielded by a given capitalincluding rentmight be 100 per cent.; but I ask, if by any miracle the produce of that land could at once be doubled, would rents then continue as high as before, or could they possibly rise? We are speaking of the immediate not the ultimate effects. The improvements in skill and machinery may in 1000 years go to the landlord, but for 900 they will remain with the tenant.
Yours very truly,David Ricardo.
I have been so busy and am yet so busy that I cannot return to Gatcomb till Friday.
London,17 Oct. 1815.
My dear Sir,
My letter was sent to the post before I received yours of yesterday's date. The parcel you sent me has reached me safe. I am sorry you had so much trouble about it.
My views respecting the Bank are entirely prospective. The last return of bank notes in circulation was, I think, larger than any that preceded it. I have not the paper in London, but I think the circulation of bank notes then amounted (1815) to 28,000,000 or more[117].
It is dangerous to listen to reports respecting briskness or slackness of trade. It is I believe certain that the revenue has been uncommonly productive the last quarter, which is no indication of diminished trade. As you allow that theloss of the sellers is the gain of the buyers, you appear to me to attribute effects much too great to the fall of raw produce which has lately taken place. It does not follow that, because prices are low, production will be discouraged. If money were to fall very much in value whilst a country was making great advances in prosperity, would not production be encouraged, notwithstanding a fall of prices?
That profits may rise on the land, if population increases faster than capital, I am not disposed to deny; but this will be a partial rise of profits on a particular trade, for a limited time, and is very different from a general rise of profits on trade in general. This admission does not affect my principle.
Ever truly yours,David Ricardo.
I ought to apologise for writing to you twice in one day.
Gatcomb Park,24th Dec., 1815.
My dear Sir,
I write to remind you that the time is come at which you once gave me hope almost to certainty that I should have the pleasure of seeing you here; and even when I last saw you you promised, if you could make it convenient, to come and pass a part of your vacation with me. The weather is beautiful, and my desire to see you as ardent as ever. Come then and inhale the pure atmosphere of our hills, and be under no fear that your visit will retard any object to which your attention may now be devoted, for you shall be free to write, study, or read, as many hours in the day as you please, unmolested by any one's intrusion.
My lost MS.[118]is recovered. Mr. Mill recommends itspublication, but advises me to write an introduction, and to divide it into sections. I had almost resolved to throw it aside, but I have been again at work upon it, and, though I cannot put it in any shape to please me, it is I think rather better than when you saw it; and the probability at present is that I shall venture to publish it.
I attended the Bank Court the other day. I had no intention whatever of speaking; but some very bad reasoning on the other side and a total deviation from the question called me up, and I spoke for five or ten minutes with considerable inward agitation, but without committing any glaring blunder. My speaking is like my writing too much compressed. I am too apt to crowd a great deal of difficult matter into so short a space as to be incomprehensible to the generality of readers. The Chronicle, I see, has reported what he thought or heard I said, but he has imputed to me what I neither felt nor uttered. Allusions were made to the Bullion question, and it was said that it had been prophesied that, if the Bank directors were corrupt, they might with the power they had of issuing paper occasion the greatest public distress; no such distress, however, had been experienced. I observed in reply that the goodness of the system was not proved by the distress not having occurred,—that the speaker had been only paying a compliment to the integrity of the directors, in which no one in the court was more ready to join than myself,—but, if the directors had been corrupt, I still thought that they had been armed with the power of doing mischief. Though I was ready to declare my confidence in the integrity of the directors, there were many parts of their system of which I could not approve, etc. etc. This is very different from the report in the Chronicle; but I understand that the reporters were most carefully excluded from the court.
I hope the business at the college has been settled to your satisfaction, and that the result of the late unpleasantdisturbance[119]will give you some security against its recurrence in future.
I conclude that you have quite finished writing the alterations and amendments which you projected for the new edition of your book[120]. When I last saw you I think you had made considerable progress, and therefore it is probable that you may be already in the press. What point will next engage your attention? For I hope, as M. Say says, that you will 'travaillez toujours' [sic]....
Ever yours,David Ricardo.
[I began] by assuring you that I was not going to weary you with a repetition of my hundred times told tale, and I am ashamed to see that I have filled four sides with nothing else. There are some other points on which I shall make some remarks when I have the pleasure of seeing you. If you should come to town, will you do me the favour to call at the Stock Exchange, unless my house should not be much out of your way. I recommend your calling there because I am just about deserting Brook Street for some time. Mrs. Ricardo and all the family are going to Ramsgate to-morrow morning, and she will not consent to let me remain at home by myself, so that when I am in London I shall be chiefly with my brother at Bow; now and then I shall pass a night at home. My business is so uncertain that I cannot at all foresee what portion of the next two or three months I shall be able to spend at the sea side. It is probable that I shall be so much in town that I shall be found by you at the Stock Exchange....
Yours most truly,David Ricardo.
Gatcomb Park,2 Jan., 1816.
My dear Sir,
Your two letters have both reached me, and I am very sorry to find that I shall not have the pleasure of seeing you at Gatcomb this vacation. I left London, as you supposed, the day after the Bank Court. I should have considered it fortunate if whilst I was there I had met you. My house in Brook Street is not yet in a state to receive us; nor will it be this season, unless we consent to go in it with the walls unpapered and unpainted, conditions to which we shall agree. It will be we are told in a habitable state by the latter end of the month, at which time we shall probably quit Gatcomb.
As you have not given me the pleasure of your company here, and as I wish to speak to Murray concerning my book and to consult some Parliamentary papers which I have not got here, I intend taking a trip to town the beginning of next week. Do you think I shall have any chance of meeting you there? Remember that a letter will always find me at or follow me from the Stock Exchange[121].
It is exceedingly provoking that you should have been so much interrupted by college affairs as not to have made more progress with your new chapters. I shall regret your thinking it necessary to abridge or leave out anything which you may have to say connected with the subject, and particularly if you should so determine, because more time will otherwise be required before you can publish. The question of bounties and restrictions is exceedingly important, and, unless you have already given your present opinions on that subject elsewhere, or mean to do so, it ought to form part of the present work[122]; and a little delay in the publication is not very important.
The edition which I have of your work is the first, and it is many years since I read it. When you wrote to me that you were looking over the chapters on the Agricultural and Manufacturing systems with a view to make some alterations in them, I looked into those chapters and saw a great deal in them which differed from the opinions I have formed on that part of the subject. At your house I observed that in a subsequent edition you had altered some of the passages to which I particularly objected, and in the chapters as you are now writing them it appeared to me that there was only a slight trace of the difference we have often discussed. The general impression which I retain of the book is excellent. The doctrines appeared so clear and so satisfactorily laid down that they excited an interest in me inferior only to that produced by Adam Smith's celebrated work[123]. I remember mentioning to you, and I believe you told me that you had altered it in the following editions, that I thought you argued in some places as if the poor rates had no effect in increasing the quantity of food to be distributed,—that I thought you were bound to admit that the poor laws would increase the demand and consequently the supply. This admission does not weaken the grand point to be proved.
As for the difference between us on Profits, of which you speak in your letter, you have not, I think, stated it correctly. You say that my opinion is 'that general profits never fall from a general fall of prices compared with labour, but from a general rise of labour compared with prices.' I will not acknowledge this to be my proposition. I think that corn and labour are the variable commodities, and that other things neither rise nor fall but from difficulty or facility of production or from some cause particularly affecting the value of money, and that no alterationof price proceeding from these causes affect[s] general profits,—allowing always some effect for cheapness of the raw material....
Yours very truly,David Ricardo.
London,10th Jan., 1816.
My dear Sir,
I arrived in town yesterday and found your letter at the Stock Exchange. It is very uncertain whether I shall leave London to-morrow evening or Monday evening. I am desirous of getting home on many accounts, but I may not be able to accomplish the business for which I came so soon as I expected, and, if I do not get it done by to-morrow it will in all probability detain me till Monday. Thus then it is still uncertain whether we are to meet, and I do not exactly know how to make you acquainted with my movements. I will, however, let Mr. Murray know if I leave town to-morrow, and, if you are in the neighbourhood of Russell Square, by sending to No. 8, Montague Street (Mr. Basevi's), you will be sure to know. In the City, at the Stock Exchange, any of my brothers will inform you about me. If I should not be gone, will you do me the favour of dining with me on Friday at Mr. Basevi's? His dinner hour is six o'clock, and he begs me to say that he shall be much flattered by your favouring him with your company. I was in hopes of finding you in London and of having the benefit of your opinion of my book[124]in its present state, before I sent it to be printed. That advantage I must now forego, because I am desirous of getting it out before the meeting of Parliament, and have before experienced the inconvenience of too much hurry.
I cannot think it inconsistent to suppose that the moneyprice of labour may rise when it is necessary to cultivate poorer land, whilst the real price may at the same time fall. Two opposite causes are influencing the price of labour, one the enhanced price of some of the things on which wages are expended, the other the fewer enjoyments which the labourer will have the power to command. You think these may balance each other, or rather that the latter will prevail; I on the contrary think the former the most powerful in its effects. I must write a book to convince you.
I am glad you are not going to cut your next edition short.
Very truly yours,David Ricardo.