OCR Text |
Show , . OF THE PROFITS O.F CAPITAL. [ CH. V. natural ·career of profits. The continued accumu ... lation of capital . and increasing difficulty of pro .. curing subsistence 'vould unquestionably lower profits. All comn1odities, in the production of which the same quantity of labour continued to be employed, but· with the assistance of capitals of various kinds and an1ount, "vould fall in price,. and ju,st in proportion to the degree in \Vhich the price of the co1nn1odity bad before been affected by profits; and with regard to corn, in the production of \vhich more labour would be necessary,. this article would rise in n1oney price, not\vith .. standing the capital used to produce it, just to , that point 'vhich would so reduce corn wages as to render the population stationary ; and thus all the effects upon profits, attributed by 1\tlr. Ricardo to a rise of money 'vages, would take place while money wages and the value of n1oney remained precisely the satne. This supposition · serves fur-. ther to shew ho\V very erroneous it must be to consider the fall of profi.ts as synonirnous with a rise of money ';ages, or to n1ake the n1oney price of labour the greq.t regulator of the rate of profits. It is obvioQs that, in this case, profits can only be regulated by the principle of con1petition, or of de1nand and supply, \Vhich would detern1ine the degree in 'vhich the prices of con1modities would fall ; and their prices, c;ompared with the unifonn price of Jq,bour, would n1ainly regulate the rate of profits. . .But Mr. Ricardo never contemplates the fall of prrces as occasioning a fall of profits, although prac ... SE C• IV•] OF THE PROFITS OF CAPITAL. S£9 tica11y in many cases, as well as on the preceding supposition, a fall of profits tnust be produced in this way. Let us suppose a prosperous commercial city, greatly excelling in son1e n1anufactures, and purchasing all its corn abroad. At first, and perhaps for a considerable time, the prices of its manufactures in foreign markets might be such as, compared with the price of its imported corn, to yield high profits; but, as capital continued to be accu- . mulated and employed in larger quantities on the exportable manufactures, such manufactures, upon the principles of de1nand and supply, "'ould in all probability fall in price. A larger portion of them tnust then be exchanged for a given portion of coFn, and profits \Vould necessarily fall. It is true that, under these circumstances, the labouring tnanufacturer must do more \\t?ork for his support, and Mr. Ricardo 'vould say that this is the legitimate cause of the fall of profits. In this I arn quite willing to agree with him; but surely the specific cause, in this case, of more "vork being necessary to earn the same quantity of corn is the fall in the prices of the exportable manufactures \Vith '~hich it is purchased, and not a rise in the price of corn, which n1ay remain exactly the sap.1e. The fall in these n1anufactures is the natural consequence of an increase of supply arising from an accnn1ulation of capital more rapid than the extension of demand for its products ; and that the fall of profits so occasioned depends entirely upon the principles of den1and and . supply will be acknowledged, if we |