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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
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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 

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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

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