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Show 562 StJl\tl\lARY PAGF. the advances, influences profits in the proportion which capital bears to labour . 80 I When capital is really abundant compared with labour, pro-fits n1ust be low, and no facility of production can occasion high profits, unless capital is scarce • . ib. If, while the capital of a country continued increasing, its population were checked by s01ne n1iraculous influence, every sort of gradation might take place in the rate of profits, from this cause alone . . . 302 Profits would be high at first, and would be gradually dimi- . nished, as capital continued to increase faster than labour, till the motive to accumulation ceased . ib. Profits, in the case supposed, would be affected in the same way as at present, but rents and wages very ditl'erently. . 303 ltents and profits would be low, because the supply both of land and of capital would be abundant, and the wages of labour would be high because labour would be scarce; and thus the value of each \vould be detennined by the prin-ciple of supply and demand ib. If the land of a country \vere supposed to be all of the same quality, and all fertile, but lin1ited in quantity, profits and corn wages would finally be low·, and rents very high . . 304 The effects which would result fron1 these suppositions shew that the successive cultivation of poorer land is not neces-sary either to low profits or high rent • • . 305 The effects of the fonner of the two suppositions on wages, shew the prodigious power which the labouring classes possess, if they chuse to exercise it, of securing to themselves a large share of what they produce ib. In the progress ..of wealth, capital and population do not keep pace with each other, and their different rates of increase at different times oocasion great tern porary variations in the rate of profits • . • 306 Though the government long annuities are tending constantly to a diminution of value, yet, from an abundance of capital, they may be higher instead of lower, after the lapse of above twenty years . . . • . . . • . . • . . • . 307 Upon the same principle, we should fall into great practical errors, if we were to estimate the rate p{ profits ·with re- SUMMARY. 563 fercnce oniy to the diffi It f . PAGll:- labourer . . cu y 0 procurmg the food of the Yet it is on this cause alo~le ~ha~ 1\f · . · · · · · . 308 Chapter on I~rofits r. Ricardo dwells in his If the pre1niscs were su~h ~sM.. 'n .' · · · · · · · . ib. elusions would be J'ust. b· t L JCardo sup po es, 1u ·s con- . ' u as other powerful . operatiOn besides those which he 1 • cau es are In elusions must contradict e . las contemplated, his conxpenence . Profits do not depend, as stated b l\1 R. . . . . . . . 308 tity of labour required to pro~ide r.th~cardo, on .the q~anlabourer . nece sanes of the If by the necessa;·ie~ of. th~ I~bo~re•: b~ U:ea~t ~h~t 11f . R. · 30D cm·do calls the natural wages of lab . th ~ . ~. ~- om' e proposition 1s untr~e; because profits must obviously be aflected by th varying quantity as well as value of necessaries paid to th ~ labourer . e If . . . . . . . . . ·1 by necessaries be meant the actual earnings ~f ~he .I abo ·. .' I ). the . . . ' Uiei, propositlOl~ Is essentially incomplete, as it quite omits the causes of !ugh or low corn wages . . II d t . . . . . . . 310 1 e ennining the quantity of food awarded to the I b th · · 1 f a ourer, .e pnncip e o demand and supply and competition h1ought forward by Adam Smith, and rejected by Mr. H.icardo, rnust be referred to 1.11ere is no other cause of ;en~an~nt~ higl~ p~·ofits than a ib. deficiency in the supply of capital . . . . The differences !n the rate of profits, occasioned b~ tl:e ;lif-· 311 ferent proportiOnS of capital to labour, in such countries as Poland and America, hardly fonn any part of Mr. Ricardo's theory of profits . . . . . . . . . . It is not meant to underrate the importance 'of th~t c~us~ of' ih. the fall of profits, which has been ahnost exclusively considered by Mr. Ricardo. It is of such a nature as finally to B overwheln~ every other . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 ut though Its final power be so great, its progress is very slow, and other causes are producing effects which entirely overcome it for a considerable length of time . ·b 1 • 0 0 2 |
