Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-wxhwt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T08:22:44.629Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Production of commodities without commodities: Ricardo on profit and rent in the “Principles”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2016

Guido Erreygers
Guido Erreygers*
Affiliation:
University of Antwerp
Get access

Summary

Under the assumption that prices are proportional to labour values, it is demonstrated that Ricardo's reasoning on the relation between profit and rent in the Principles contains two errors. Both of them point to the neglect of commodity inputs. Curiously, though, they compensate one another, so that Ricardo's conclusion about the tendential fall of the rate of profits as a result of capital accumulation when there is no technical progress remains valid.

Résumé

Résumé

Sous l'hypothèse que les prix sont proportionnels aux valeurs-travail, il est démontré que le raisonnement de Ricardo sur la relation entre profits et rentes dans les Principles contient deux erreurs. Tous les deux témoignent de la négligence des marchandises utilisées en tant que moyens de production. Curieusement, pourtant, les erreurs se compensent, de manière que la conclusion de Ricardo sur la baisse tendancielle du taux de profit resultant de l'accumulation du capital en l'absence de progrès technique reste vraie.

Keywords

B12B31D33 1B12B31D33 1
Type
Research Article
Information
Recherches Économiques de Louvain/ Louvain Economic Review , Volume 57 , Issue 4 , 1991 , pp. 349 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de recherches économiques et sociales 1991 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

This paper is based on Chapter 2 of my doctoral dissertation Terre, rente et choix de techniques. Une étude sur la théorie néo-ricardienne, Université Paris X - Nanterre, June 1990. It has been presented at the Sixth Annual Congress of the European Economic Association (Cambridge, 1991). I am grateful to my thesis supervisor Christian Bidard, Wilfried Parys, the referees of this journal, and others for helpful comments. I am responsible for all errors that remain.

References

REFERENCES

Blaug, Mark (1985), “What Ricardo said and what Ricardo meant” in: Caravale, Giovanni A. (Ed.), The Legacy of Ricardo, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, pp. 3–10.Google Scholar
Cannan, Edwin (1917), A History of the Theories of Production and Distribution from 1776 to 1848, London, Staples.Google Scholar
Caravale, Giovanni A. (1991), “Marx's views on Ricardo - a critical evaluation” in: Caravale, Giovanni A. (Ed.), Marx and Modern Economic Analysis, AIdershot, Edgar Elgar, vol. II, pp. 168–207.Google Scholar
John, Eatwell (1975), The interpretation of Ricardo's Essay on Profits”, Economica, vol. 42(166), pp. 182–187.Google Scholar
Erreygers, Guido (1989), “On indirect taxation and weakly basic commodities”, Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie, vol. 50(2), pp. 139–156.Google Scholar
Garegnani, Pierangelo (1982), “On Hollander's interpretation of Ricardo's early theory of profits”, Cambridge Journal of Economics, vol. 6(1), pp. 65–77.Google Scholar
Garegnani, Pierangelo (1984), “Value and distribution in the classical economists and Marx”, Oxford Economic Papers, vol. 36(2), pp. 291–325.Google Scholar
Hollander, Samuel (1973), “Ricardo's analysis of the profit rate, 1813-1815”, Economica, vol. 40(159), pp. 260–282.Google Scholar
Marshall, Alfred (1920), Principles of Economics, London, MacMillan (8th edition).Google Scholar
Marx, Karl (1967[1861-1863]), Theorien über den Mehrwert, Berlin, Dietz.Google Scholar
Parys, Wilfried (1977), “A simple criterion for equal value composition of capital”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 91(3), pp. 511–512.Google Scholar
Peach, Terry (1984), “David Ricardo's early treatment of profitability: a new interpretation”, Economic Journal, vol. 94(376), pp. 733–751.Google Scholar
Ricardo, David (1951[1815]), “An Essay on the Influence of a Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Stock”, in: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, edited by Sraffa, Piero with the collaboration of Dobb, M.H., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, vol. IV, pp. 9–41.Google Scholar
Ricardo, David (1951[18171,18213]), “On the Principles of Political Economy, and Taxation”, in: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, edited by Sraffa, Piero with the collaboration of Dobb, M.H., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, vol. I.Google Scholar
Roncaglia, Alessandro (1982), “Hollander's Ricardo”, Journal of Post-Key-nesian Economics, vol. 4(3), pp. 339–359.Google Scholar
Sraffa, Piero (1951), “Introduction” in Ricardo, David (1951[18171, 18213), pp. xiii–lxii.Google Scholar
Steedman, Ian (1982), “Marx on Ricardo”, in: Bradley, Ian & Howard, Michael (Eds.), Classical and Marxian Political Economy - Essays in Honour of Ronald L. Meek, London, McMillan, pp. 115–156.Google Scholar
Woods, John Edward (1985), “Exercises in relative price invariance”, Giornale degli Economisti e Annali di Economia, vol. 44(3-4), pp. 135–152.Google Scholar