登陆注册
5590800000068

第68章 Ricardo(9)

Wages rise and fall like the price of commodities,when for any reason the number of hirers or the number of purchasers varies.The 'supply and demand'formula,however,could not,as Ricardo saw,be summarily identified with labour and capital.We must go behind the immediate phenomena to consider how they are regulated by the ultimate moving power.Then,with the help of the theories of population and rent,we find that the wages are one product of the whole industrial process.We must look beyond the immediate market fluctuation to the effect upon the capitalists who constitute the market.The world is conceived as one great market,in which the motives of the capitalist supply the motive power;and the share which goes to the labourer is an incidental or collateral result of the working of the whole machinery.Now,though the sociologist would say that this is quite inadequate for his purpose,and that we must consider the whole social structure,he may also admit that the scheme has a validity in its own sphere.It describes the actual working of the mechanism at any given time;and it may be that in Ricardo's time it gave an approximate account of the facts.To make it complete,it requires to be set,so to speak,in a more general framework of theory;and we may then see that it cannot give a complete solution.Still,as a consistent scheme which corresponds to the immediate phenomena,it helps us to understand the play of the industrial forces which immediately regulate the market.

Ricardo's position suggested a different line of reply.The doctrines that capital is 'accumulated labour'and that all value is in proportion to the labour fell in with the Socialist theory.If value is created by labour,ought not 'labour'to possess what it makes?The right to the whole produce of labour seemed to be a natural conclusion.Ricardo might answer that when I buy your labour,it becomes mine.I may consider myself to have acquired the rights of the real creator of the wealth,and to embody all the labourers,whose 'accumulated labour'is capital.Still,there is a difficulty.The beaver and deer case has an awkward ethical aspect.To say that they are exchanged at such a rate seems to mean that they ought to be exchanged at the rate.This again implies the principle that a man has a right to what he has caught;that is,to the whole fruits of his labour.James Mill,as we have seen,starts his political treatise by assuming this as obvious.43He did not consider the possible inferences;for it is certainly a daring assumption that the principle is carried out by the economic system.According to Ricardo rent is paid to men who don't labour at all.The fundholder was a weight upon all industry,and as dead a weight as the landlord.The capitalist,Ricardo's social mainspring,required at least cross-examination.He represents 'accumulated labour'in some fashion,but it is not plain that the slice which he takes out of the whole cake is proportioned accurately to his personal labour.The right and the fact which coincided in the deer and beaver period have somehow come to diverge.

Here,then,we are at a point common to the two opposing schools,Both are absolute 'individualists'in different senses.Society is built up,and all industrial relations determined,by the competition of a multitude of independent atoms,each aiming at self-preservation.Malthus's principle applies this to the great mass of mankind.Systematically worked out,it has led to Ricardo's identification of value with quantities of labour.Keeping simply to the matter of fact,it shows how a small minority have managed to get advantages in the struggle,and to raise themselves upon the shoulders of the struggling mass.Malthus shows that the resulting inequality prevents the struggle from lowering every one to starvation point.But the advantage was not obvious to the struggling mass which exemplified the struggle for existence.If equality meant not the initial facts but the permanent right,society was built upon injustice.Apply the political doctrine of rights of man to the economic right to wealth,and you have the Socialist doctrine of right to the whole produce of labour.It is true that it is exceedingly difficult to say what each man has created when he is really part of a complex machinery;but that is a problem to which Socialists could apply their ingenuity.The real answer of the political economists was that although the existing order implied great inequalities of wealth it was yet essential to industrial progress,and therefore to an improvement in the general standard of comfort.

This,however,was the less evident the more they insisted upon the individual interest.The net result seemed to be that by accident or inheritance,possibly by fraud or force,a small number of persons have got a much larger share of wealth than their rivals.Ricardo may expound the science accurately;and,if so,we have to ask,What are the right ethical conclusions?

For the present,the Utilitarians seem to have considered this question as superfluous.They were content to take the existing order for granted;and the question remains how far their conclusions upon that assumption could be really satisfactory.

IV.THE CLASSICAL POLITICAL ECONOMY.

Ricardo had worked out the main outlines of the 'Classical Political Economy':The system which to his disciples appeared to be as clear,consistent,and demonstrable as Euclid;and which was denounced by their opponents as mechanical,materialistic,fatalistic,and degrading,After triumphing for a season,it has been of late years often treated with contempt,and sometimes banished to the limbo of extinct logomachies.It is condemned as 'abstract.'Of all delusions on the subject,replies a very able and severe critic,44there is none greater than the belief that it was 'wholly abstract and unpractical.'

同类推荐
  • 佛说大吉祥天女十二名号经之二

    佛说大吉祥天女十二名号经之二

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 医学从众录

    医学从众录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 四愿经

    四愿经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 太上灵宝上元天官消愆灭罪忏

    太上灵宝上元天官消愆灭罪忏

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 般若灯论释

    般若灯论释

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • The Life of General Francis Marion

    The Life of General Francis Marion

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 快穿女配:撩倒男神N次方

    快穿女配:撩倒男神N次方

    【1V1甜宠】鬼仙娘娘被系统绑定,去数个位面收集能量,互惠互利美名曰旅游。女主大手一挥:大好山河吾来了,上天入地唯我独尊。系统面无表情:你先崩人设后划浪,我要关门放主人了。男主啪飞系统:我自愿宠你上天入地,你只管无往不胜。女主勾唇:“我叫你一声,你敢应吗?应了就到我怀里来。”男主兴奋:“汪汪汪……”叮!您的奶狗/狼狗已到账。
  • 尸衣

    尸衣

    贪便宜在网上买到一件死人衣服,身边接连出现诡异事件。凡是穿过它的人,都有点怪怪的……
  • 九界攀神

    九界攀神

    天地本分为九州,天地玄黄,东南西北中,不过在上古之时,发生了一声大变,天地因此被分割成九个世界。黄界为其中一界,传闻只有攀上最颠峰之后,斩杀其它八界之所有颠峰高手,便可以一举成为九界之神,一统九界,让九界重聚成为九州大千世界。“滚………………我欲攀峰成神,挡我者死…………”古天手持盘龙重生剑,傲视苍生。
  • 前方高能末日学校来袭

    前方高能末日学校来袭

    末日学校是一个男校,所以里面全部都是男的,不过末日学校和其他学校不一样,每个人都有自己的宿舍,不过这个学校没有一个女的,要是有女的进去了的话,就会被打一顿然后扔出来,但是还要源源不断的女生来这里,为什么呢因为这里有钱人非常的多。有一天,这里来了一个新的学生……
  • 海外扶余

    海外扶余

    海外扶余,扶余,传说中的古国名,有说是今天的日本,也有说是今天的南美洲。比喻遥远的与世隔绝的异国他乡。
  • 别喊我大侠

    别喊我大侠

    西北荒芜,皇城锦绣,草原征战,孤岛惊魂,一剑惊红尘,一语难罢休。
  • 殿下请松爪

    殿下请松爪

    追逐你是一种习惯,但我不是真真正正的凡人,我是九天之上的清浅神君“景良辰”。所以……五殿下,给脸不要脸要有一个限度。与我,你是我心口的朱砂痣,你想让我放手,别说不要脸了,就是不要命了,本殿下也要把你拐回家。嘿嘿嘿……
  • 肩门

    肩门

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 田园乞丐婆

    田园乞丐婆

    她是不得家人待见的穷苦农家丫头,吃不饱,穿不暖,身体受过伤被断言无法生育,被婆家人退了婚,坏了名声。村里人都说她要么一辈子嫁不出去,要么只能嫁给村里克妻的残障人士阿楞。结果呢?她愣是嫁给了村外破庙里的乞丐当乞丐婆子,跌破所有人的下巴!没聘礼,住破庙,娘家只给了一袋子陈米一袋子玉米当嫁妆,更扬言从此断绝来往不允许她回娘家打秋风!面对一众幸灾乐祸等着看好戏的人,秦家丫头高冷一笑。打秋风你老母!凸!姑奶奶穿越时身怀万能系统,系统商城里要什么好东西没有,还怕过不上好日子?吃不饱饭?不怕!找系统!买管催化剂,一把种子分分钟变粮食不要太美好!破庙太破?不怕!找系统!买一套福禄寿三星像一摆,香火鼎盛,破庙变神庙,各路达官贵人挤破头想住进来沾福气!亲戚找茬?不怕!找系统!整蛊用品层出不穷,玩死人不偿命,只有你想不到,没有系统做不到!无法生育?不怕!找系统——不,这个不用找系统,她自己就能解决!扎两针再吃两贴独家密药,保证药到病除,生一个足球队都没问题!系统介绍:本系统囊括日用,医疗,美食,兵器,商业,娱乐等各行业商品,实乃发家致富,居家旅行,杀人越货必备良品,你,值得拥有!*****彼时,他是乞丐,她是贫穷农女,一时心软给了他一个包子,得到一句:待我发达,娶你回家!她回:老娘不想当乞丐婆!此时,他是掌柜,她是东家,铺子打烊回到家:霜霜,晚上吃包子吧!她回:等着!他说:再配点酸黄瓜!如果有酒就更好了她默:……得寸进尺!若干年后,他是天子,她是皇后,下朝回来摸着肚子喊:皇后,咱们晚上吃包子吧!她怒:吃吃吃,吃了多少年了还吃!怎么不吃死你!他笑得得意:吃了包子才有力气一起种包子!皇后,你可是答应了朕要给朕生一个足球队的!她怒气掀桌,竖起中指:种尼玛种啊!*****推荐如歌的完结种田文《盛世田园之天才小酒娘》: