David Ricardo quotes

David Ricardo was a British political economist, widely recognized for his influential work in classical economics. His theory of comparative advantage laid the foundation for international trade theory. He shaped economic thought with his ideas about value, distribution, and trade. Here are 65 of his quotes:

Rent is the portion of the earth, which is paid to the landlord for the user of the original and indestructible powers of the soil. (David Ricardo)
The farmer and manufacturer can no more live without profit than the labourer without wages. View quote
David Ricardo
The demand for money is regulated entirely by its value, and its value by its quantity. View quote
David Ricardo
No extension of foreign trade will immediately increase the amount of value in a country, although it will very powerfully contribute to increase the mass of commodities and therefore the sum of enjoyments. View quote
David Ricardo
Money is neither a material to work upon nor a tool to work with. View quote
David Ricardo
There can be no greater error then in supposing that capital is increased by non-consumption. View quote
David Ricardo
The price of corn will naturally rise with the difficulty of producing the last portions of it. View quote
David Ricardo
If a tax on malt would raise the price of beer, a tax on bread must raise the price of bread. View quote
David Ricardo
LABOUR, like all other things which are purchased and sold, and which may be increased or diminished in quantity, has its natural and its market price. The natural price of labour is that price which is necessary to enable the labourers, on with another, to subsist and to perpetuate their race, without either increase or diminution. View quote
David Ricardo
The produce of the earth - all that is derived from its surface by the united application of labour, machinery, and capital, is divided among three classes of the community, namely, the proprietor of the land, the owner of the stock or capital necessary for its cultivation, and the labourers by whose industry it is cultivated. View quote
David Ricardo
Possessing utility, commodities derive their exchangeable value from two sources: from their scarcity, and from the quantity of labour required to obtain them. (David Ricardo)
Whether a bank lent one million, ten million, or a hundred millions, they would not permanently alter the market rate of interest; they would alter only the value of the money they issued. View quote
David Ricardo
Neither machines, nor the commodities made by them, rise in real value, but all commodities made by machines fall, and fall in proportion to their durability. View quote
David Ricardo
The opinions that the price of commodities depends solely on the proportion of supply and demand, or demand to supply, has become almost an axiom in political economy, and has been the source of much error in that science. View quote
David Ricardo
Every transaction in commerce is an independent transaction. View quote
David Ricardo
If I discover a manure which will enable me to make a piece of land produce 20 per cent more corn, I may withdraw at least a portion of my capital from the most unproductive part of my farm. View quote
David Ricardo
Adam Smith, and other able writers to whom I have alluded, not having viewed correctly the principles of rent, have, it appears to me, overlooked many important truths, which can only be discovered after the subject of rent is thoroughly understood. View quote
David Ricardo
I have endeavoured to show that the ability to pay taxes depends, not on the gross money value of the mass of commodities, nor on the net money value of the revenue of capitalists and landlords, but on the money value of each man's revenue compared to the money value of the commodities which he usually consumes. View quote
David Ricardo
Utility then is not the measure of exchangeable value, although it is absolutely essential to it. View quote
David Ricardo
It has therefore been justly observed that however honestly the coin of a country may conform to its standard, money made of gold and silver is still liable to fluctuations in value, not only to accidental, and temporary, but to permanent and natural variations, in the same manner as other commodities. View quote
David Ricardo
The wheat bought by a farmer to sow is comparatively a fixed capital to the wheat purchased by a baker to make into loaves. (David Ricardo)
But it is clear that the price of labour has no necessary connection with the price of food, since it depends entirely on the supply of labourers compared with the demand. View quote
David Ricardo
But a tax on luxuries would no other effect than to raise their price. It would fall wholly on the consumer, and could neither increase wages nor lower profits. View quote
David Ricardo
Whenever the current of money is forcibly stopped, and when money is prevented from settling at its just level, there are no limits to the possible variations of the exchange. View quote
David Ricardo
To alter the money value of commodities, by altering the value of money, and yet to raise the same money amount by taxes, is then undoubtedly to increase the burthens of society. View quote
David Ricardo