The Philosophy of Trade: Or, Outlines of a Theory of Profits and Prices, Including an Examination of the Principles which Determine the Relative Value of Corn, Labour, and Currency |
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The Philosophy of Trade: Or Outlines of a Theory of Profits and Prices ... Patrick James Stirling No preview available - 2009 |
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100 quarters 20 per cent 487 dollars Adam Smith agriculture altered amount average bills BOOK capital employed capital of 100 cause CHAP CHAPTER circulation commodities consequence corn and labour cost cultivation demand departments deviation diminished dities effect elevation enlargement equal estimated in gold exchangeable value exports gold bullion gold coin increase land London manufacturer market price material of money metallic currency modity money price money value natural price natural rate obtained ordinary rate ounce of gold population pound pound sterling price of bullion price of corn price of gold price of labour principle proportion quantity of gold quantity of labour quarters of wheat rate of profits reduced redundant regulated rent Ricardo rise or fall seignorage sell sold sovereigns specie standard gold supply of corn supply of gold supply of labour suppose tion tivation value of corn value of labour Wealth of Nations York
Popular passages
Page 334 - If among a nation of hunters, for example, it usually costs twice the labour to kill a beaver which it does to kill a deer, one beaver should naturally exchange for or be worth two deer. It is natural that what is usually the produce of two days or two hours labour, should be worth double of what is usually the produce of one day's or one hour's labour.
Page 34 - The natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating. Different accidents may sometimes keep them suspended a good deal above it, and sometimes force them down even somewhat below it. But whatever may be the obstacles which hinder them from settling in this center of repose and continuance, they are constantly tending towards it.
Page 334 - IN that early and rude state of society which precedes both the accumulation of stock and the appropriation of land...
Page 92 - The labourer therefore must do more work to earn the same as he did before. During this season of distress, the discouragements to marriage and the difficulty of rearing a family are so great that the progress of population is retarded.
Page 206 - ... large territory has generally an abundance, but the inferior machinery which may be said to be employed when good land is further and further forced for additional produce. As the price of raw produce continues to rise, these inferior machines are successively called into action ; and, as the price of raw produce continues to fall, they are successively thrown out of action. The illustration here used serves to show at once the necessity of the actual price of corn to the actual produce, and...
Page 122 - ... will allow: he has always some portion of this floating capital, increasing or diminishing according to the activity of the demand for his commodities. When the demand for silks increases, and that for cloth diminishes, the clothier does not remove with his capital to the silk trade, but he dismisses some of his workmen, he discontinues his demand for the loan from bankers and...
Page 36 - It is worth while to remark, that a product is no sooner created, than it, from that instant, affords a market for other products to the full extent of its own value.
Page 205 - The price of raw produce, therefore, naturally rises till it becomes sufficiently high to pay the cost of raising it with inferior machines, and by a more expensive process ; and, as there cannot be two prices for corn of the same quality, all the other machines, the working of which requires less capital compared with the produce, must yield rents in proportion to their goodness.
Page 336 - But though labour be the real measure of the exchangeable value of all commodities, it is not that by which their value is commonly estimated. It is often difficult to ascertain the proportion between two different quantities of labour. The time spent in two different sorts of work will not always alone determine this proportion. The different degrees of hardship endured, and of ingenuity exercised, must likewise be taken into account.10 There may be more labour in an hour's hard work than in two...
Page 91 - We will suppose the means of subsistence in any country just equal to the easy support of its inhabitants. The constant effort towards population, which is found to act even in the most vicious societies, increases the number of people before the means of subsistence are increased.