Principi di economia politica e dell'imposta

Le prime righe

In that case I should say, that wages and rent had fallen, and profits risen; though in consequence of the abundance of commodities, the quantity paid to the labourer and landlord would have increased in the proportion of 25 to 44. Wages are to be estimated by their real value, viz. by the quantity of labour and capital employed in producing them, and not by their nominal value either in coats, hats, money, or corn. Under the circumstances I have just supposed, commodities would have fallen to half their former value; and, if money had not varied, to half their former price also. If then in this medium, which had not varied in value, the wages of the labourer should be found to have fallen, it will not the less be a real fall, because they might furnish him with a greater quantity of cheap commodities, than his former wages. The variation in the value of money, however great, makes no difference in the rate of profits; for suppose the goods of the manufacturer to rise from 1000l. to 2000l., or 100 per cent., if his capital, on which the variations of money have as much effect as on the value of produce, if his machinery, buildings, and stock in trade rise more than 100 per cent., his rate of profits has fallen, and he has a proportionably less quantity of the produce of the labour of the country at his command. If, with capital of a given value, he double the quantity of produce, its value falls one half, and then it will bear the same proportion to the capital which produced it, as it did before. If at the same time that he doubles the quantity of produce by the employment of the same capital, the value of money is by any accident lowered one half, the produce will sell for twice the money value that it did before; but the capital employed to produce it, will also be