520. Wealth of Nations, I. xi., beginning.

521. He does not always prefix this qualification; but that he intended it appears clearly from the Tract on Rent, p. 3 n.: Not every land that yields food will yield rent. Cf. Pol Econ. (1820), p. 141.

522. Compare Tract on Rent, p. 16 n.

523. The title of the tract is, An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent, and the Principles by which it is regulated. It appears from a letter of Malthus to Sir John Sinclair on 31st Jan., 1815, that it was passing through the press in that month. Sinclair, Correspondence, i. 391 (1831).

524. As, he might have added, in education.

525. Pol. Econ. (1820), p. 142, but especially p. 187. Cf. Tract on Rent, pp. 8–12.

526. Rent, p. 10.

527. Cf. also below, p. 294.

528. Wealth of Nations, IV. ii. 307, 2; cf. IV. v. 240, 2.

529. Essay on the Application of Capital to Land, with observations showing the impolicy of any great restriction of the importation of corn, and that the bounty of 1688 did not lower the price of it. By a fellow of University College, Oxford. (London, 1815.) Page 2.

530. W. of N., II. iii. 148, 1.

531. Essay, 1st ed., p. 363.

532. Tract on Rent, p. 16; Essay on Pop. (7th ed.), p. 327. Cf. above.

533. Rent, p. 20; cf. pp. 18, 57. Essay on Pop., 2nd ed., p. 433; 7th ed., p. 327. “If we look only to the clear monied rent,” &c.

534. Ricardo, Preface to Principles of Pol. Econ. and Taxation.

535. Reprinted by MacCulloch in his edition of Pol. Econ. and Taxation, pp. 367–390.

536. MacCulloch ed. of Pol. Econ. and Taxation, p. 374 n.

537. Ibid., p. 371.

538. So Prof. Rogers ascribes the high rents of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries very largely to the low wages; higher ones would have “reduced rent first, and profits afterwards.”—Six Centuries, p. 482; cf. pp. 480 and 492.

539. Pol. Econ. (1820), p. 161 (ch. iii. sect. iii.).

540. Pol. Econ. and Taxation, pp. 373, 375, 379–80; cf. pp. 71 and 72, but especially 68 ft. Malthus on the whole follows Adam Smith, I. ix.; Mill has followed Ricardo.

541. So far as the account is meant to be historical, it must be corrected by Carey. See above, p. 65.

542. Ricardo, l. c. p. 372 and n. Cf. below. He appeals to Adam Smith’s principle of compensation (Wealth of Nations, I. x.).

543. Rogers (Six Centuries, p. 352) goes so far the other way as to make improvements the only cause of an increase of rent, though the passage should be read with p. 480, and especially pp. 482 and 492.

544. E. g. Mrs. Fawcett, Pol. Econ. for Beginners, pp. 65, 66; and even West, on Rent, p. 50.

545. 3rd Report, 1827, p. 321, qu. 3341. Cf. Perr. Thompson, True Theory of Rent, pp. 8, 12, 34, &c. (1832, 9th ed.).

546. Tract on Value, p. 6.

547. Ricardo, Low Price of Corn, &c., Works, pp. 373, 380, 381, &c.

548. Ibid., pp. 377, 379.

549. Ricardo, Works, l. c. p. 378.

550. Pol. Econ. and Tax., ibid. pp. 50 seq., esp. pp. 54, 55.

551. l. c. p. 55 ft.

552. Low Price, &c., ibid., p. 379.

553. Pol. Econ. and Tax., ch. v.; cf. Malthus, Pol. Econ. (1820), p. 230.

554. But cf. Works, p. 377 n.

555. Pol. Econ., IV. iii § 4. Cf. Walker, Land and its Rent, pp. 177–81, though it has been pointed out that on p. 178 that writer omits Mill’s qualifying phrase, (improvements) “suddenly made.”

556. See Sir James Caird’s table appended to Landed Interest (1878). Cf. Cairne’s Essays in Pol. Ec., vi. p. 216.

557. Bk. III. ch. vii p. 429.

558. Essay, 2nd ed., Bk. III. ch. viii. p. 437.

559. Ibid., l. c. ch. ix. pp. 443 seq.

560. Essay, Bk. III. ch. ix. p. 450.

561. Ibid., ch. x. p. 465.

562. Ibid., Bk. V. ch. x. p. 468 n.

563. Pol. Econ. (1820), pp. 227 seq., (1836) pp. 240 seq.

564. Six Centuries of Work and Wages, ch. xii., esp. p. 345.

565. The facts of Malthus’ “review” may be roughly given in the following diagram, where the bar indicates the wheat earned per day by the agricultural labourer. The amount for 1350 assumes that the Statute of Labourers was successful.

566. 7th ed., pp. 321 seq. (Bk. III. ch. viii.), first in 1817.

567. Cf. above, p. 225 n. In Pol. Econ. (1820), p. 432, he says, “All the great results in Pol. Econ. respecting wealth depend upon proportions.” 2nd ed. added (p. 376), “not only there, but throughout the whole range of nature and art.” So he thinks a peck of wheat a good “middle point” of wages. Pol. Econ. (1820), p. 284, (1836) p. 254.

568. Essay, 7th ed., Bk. III. ch. ix. pp. 328 seq. Cf. pp. 334, 338.

569. Ibid., p. 332.

570. Ibid., Bk. III. ch. x. pp. 334 seq.

571. See above, p. 201 n. Cf. Essay on Pop., 7th ed., p. 337.

572. Essay, l. c. p. 338.

573. l. c. Bk. III. ch. x. pp. 338–9.

574. Fortnightly Review, Nov. 1881, his last writing. Cf. Essay, l. c. pp. 340–342.

575. In two long chapters on Corn Laws and Bounties, Essay on Pop., Bk. III. ch. xi. pp. 343–367. Cf. above, pp. 226 seq.

576. See below, Bk. IV.

577. The Measure of Value stated and illustrated, with an application of it to the alteration in the value of the English currency since 1790. (April) 1823.

578. So Tract on Value, p. 1. But in Definitions value is “the relation of one object to some other or others, in exchange, resulting from the estimation in which a thing is held” (def. 40, 41; cf. with def. 5).

579. Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, I. v.

580. Measure of Value, p. 23. Cf. Pol. Econ. (1820), pp. 126 seq.; (1836), pp. 84, 93 seq.

581. Measure of Value, p. 20 n. On pp. 23–4 he adds, “taking the average of summer and winter wages.”

582. See below, p. 268. Pol. Econ. (1820), p. 125; (1836) p. 102, &c.; Tract on Value, passim.

583. Work and Wages, ch. iii. p. 75. Malthus, Pol. Econ., 2nd ed., pp. 108 seq.

584. Cf. Marx, Kapital, pp. 19, 21, &c.

585. MacC.’s ed., pp. 45 seq. Cf. Tract on Value, p. 20 n., above quoted.

586. Cf. Ricardo, Pol. Econ., Works (ed. MacC.), p. 15.

587. Meas. of Value, pp. 8–12.

588. Meas. of Value, pp. 22, 65. Cf. Cairnes, Australian Episode, in Essays in Pol. Econ. (pp. 92 seq.; cf. pp. 37, 61), (1873),—first published in Fraser’s Mag., Sept. 1859.

589. Meas. of Value, p. 23.

590. Ibid., pp. 27–29.

591. Meas. of Value, p. 29 n.

592. He might have said simply that the one is intrinsic, the other extrinsic, in relation to the agricultural products themselves.

593. Meas. of Value, p. 63.

594. Meas. of Value, pp. 67 seq. Cf. below, pp. 283 seq.

595. Who allows cost to play a greater part in value. Cf. below, pp. 278–9. But Ricardo, Pol. Econ., sect vi. p. 28, disclaims belief in any universal measure of value.

596. Malthus, quoted by Empson, Edin. Rev., Jan. 1837, p. 499.

597. He was F.R.S. 1819, and a member of Pol. Econ. Club at its foundation in 1821.

598. 4th May, 1825; 7th Nov., 1827. Transactions of it R. S. L., vol. i. part i. p. 171.

599. Report of R. S. L., 1824, p. 21.

600. We might expressly wish to know a coat’s value in money or its value in cutlery or coals. The Professor at the Breakfast-table talks of “Madeira worth from two to six Bibles a bottle.”

601. Definitions (1827), p. 235.

602. I. e. to the object which measures that cost-value.

603. Ibid., p. 243.

604. See above, p. 254. Ricardo’s long correspondence with Malthus on the subject is mentioned by Empson, Edin. Rev., l. c. p. 469. Empson’s extracts from it are the most valuable part of his article.

605. R. Torrens, Production of Wealth, 1821, pp. iv, v.

606. Held, Sociale Geschichte Englands, p. 205.

607. Dialogues of Three Templars on Political Economy, 1824 (Works, Black, 1863, vol. iv.). All depends on the assumption in the middle of Dialogue I. p. 196, (“it is Mr. Ricardo’s doctrine that,” &c.), and on the confinement of the discussion to natural value (p. 198).

608. Measure of Value, p. 20 n.

609. London, 1832; Birmingham, 1833. The Constituent Assembly applied the same measure, but in a different way, in 1791. See Roscher, National-ökon. (1879), p. 298.

610. The words are, “enable the labourers to maintain a stationary or an increasing population” (Pol. Econ., 1836, p. 218). The awkwardness of the sentence may be due to bad editing; but we read elsewhere of the “price of wages.”

611. Pol. Econ., 1836, pp. 218, 223.

612. See Lassalle and Marx.

613. Cf. Malthus, Pol. Econ. (1836), pp. 224, 225, &c. Essay on Population, 7th ed., III viii. 323, but especially IV. xiii. 473. See also Rogers, Six Centuries, ch. viii., ‘The Famine and the Plague,’ especially pp. 233–242.

614. Malthus, Essay on Pop., IV. xiii. 473; cf. pp. 373 and 434.

615. Cf. especially Essay on Pop. (2nd ed.), III. ix. 444. “The price of labour has been rising—not to fall again.”

616. Emigr. Comm. (1827), p. 326, qu. 3411; cf. 3408, 3409. Cf. above, p. 197.

617. The chief of them being the rate of profits which is at the given time enough to induce the “undertaker” (or “enterpriser”) to continue business.

618. See Mill on Thornton’s ‘Labour,’ Fortnightly Review, May 1869. Cf. Walker on The Wages Question, pp. 140 seq.

619. So in Quarterly Review, Jan. 1824, p. 315, Malthus says profits depend rather on the demand for produce than on the demand for labour.

620. Discourse on Pol. Econ., by J. R. MacCulloch, pp. 61, 62 (1st and 2nd edd.), 1825.

621. Conversations on Pol. Econ., 1817 (1st and 2nd edd.), p. 137. Mrs. Marcet’s memory is preserved for latter-day readers by Macaulay’s reference to her in the essay on Milton.

622. Discourse, l. c. Cf. MacC.’s Pol. Econ., Pt. III. ch. ii. p. 378 (ed. 1843); Prof. Fawcett’s Manual of Pol. Econ., p. 131 (1876).

623. James Mill, Elem. (1821), p. 25; John Mill, Principles, II. xi. § 1. Cf. Fort. Rev., 1869, May; Thornton, Labour, II. i. p. 83.

624. Wealth of Nations, I. viii. p. 31, 2.

625. Ibid., IV. ix. 306, 1.

626. Ibid., IV. ix. 310, 2.

627. Ibid., V. i. 327, 2.

628. Pol. Econ., ed. 1836, ch. iv. sect. ii. p. 224.

629. Ibid. ed. 1820, ch. iv. p. 248.

630. Quarterly Review, Jan. 1824. Cf. below, p. 288.

631. Supplement to Encyclopædia Britannica. Cf. above, p. 71.

632. Empson in Edin. Rev., Jan. 1837, p. 496.

633. Quart. Rev., Jan. 1824 (no. lx.), pp. 333–4.

634. Ricardo, Pol. Econ. and Tax., ch. i. sections iv., v.; Works, pp. 20, 25. Cf. Malthus, Pol. Econ., 1820, p. 104, and the whole of section iii. pp. 72 seq.

635. Quart. Rev., l. c. p. 324; cf. p. 315. Cf. above.

636. Pol. Econ. and Tax., ch. i. sections iv. and v.

637. Any given value, it might be added, is influenced by custom as well as competition.

638. 1821, p. 186, ch. iv. sect. iii. “That consumption is coextensive with production.”

639. Pol. Econ., III. xiv. “Of excess of supply.” Cf. I. v. § 3, p. 42.

640. A cargo of skates was sent to Rio Janeiro in 1808.

641. The intention of the new Corn Law of 1815 was to keep out all foreign grain till the home price should reach 80s. a quarter, or the loaf 1s. See above, p. 221.

642. The article on the Bullion question, in August of the same year, might be his, if it was not Francis Horner’s. Cf. Horner’s Life, vol. i. ch. vi., dates April and Sept. 1805, from which it appears that Horner was working hard at the question and meant to write on it, as he might have done better in 1811, fresh from his experience on the Bullion Committee. As to the February article, the authorship is shown partly by internal evidence, partly by Horner’s Life, vol. ii. p. 68 (Jan. 1811): “I received Malthus’ MS. from you [Jeffrey] and have since transmitted it to him with such remarks as occurred to me in perusing it,” &c. MacCulloch did not begin to write the economical articles for the Edin. Rev. till 1818. See Notes and Queries, 5th Oct., 1878.

643. For the history of the currency in the interval see Miss Martineau’s Introd. to Hist. of Peace, Bk. II. ch. iii.; Hist. of the Peace, Bk. I. ch. iii. and ch. xv.; Cobbett’s Paper v. Gold; Macleod’s Banking, vol. ii., end of ch. ix. pp. 174–221, much the completest account.

644. Peel changed his views then on Currency, as he did later on Catholic Emancipation and the Corn Laws.

645. p. 370. He speaks approvingly of the American free trade in banking in a way that would have pleased Cobden.

646. p. 371.

647. E. g. Horner complains of this even in so clear a paper as that on Newenham. See Horner’s Life, vol. i. pp. 436–7 (sub dato 1808).

648. Works (ed. MacC.), pp. 291–296.

649. Ricardo, Works (MacC.), p. xxi.

650. Cf. below, Bk. V.

651. Horner’s Life, vol. ii. p. 68 (Jan. 1811).

652. Thoughts and Details on High and Low Prices during the last Thirty Years, 1793–1823. The later ed. of 1838 in three vols. is more valuable.

653. Political Register, 30th Nov., 1816.

654. Internal evidence, e. g. p. 237 of the Quarterly, compared with p. 65 of Measure of Value, would show his authorship, and the article is ascribed to him by Tooke, Prices, ed. 1838, vol. i. p. 21.

655. l. c. pp. 215–16.

656. Bosanquet, Practical Observations on the Report of the Bullion Committee (1810); Ricardo, The High Price of Bullion a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank-Notes (1809), and his Reply to Bosanquet (1811).

657. l. c. Pol. Econ., Introd. (1820), pp. 6 and 7 n., (1836) p. 5 n. Cf. Tooke, Prices, Part I. p. 6 (ed. 1823).

658. Tooke, Prices, Part III. p. 91.

659. See Tract on Value, p. 18.

660. Quarterly, April 1823, p. 230.

661. Econ. Pol., Part III. ch. ii., 2nd ed., 1842; 1st ed., 1802.

662. “Products” is Say’s word, however.

663. Elements (1821), ch. iv. sect. iii. pp. 186 seq. “That consumption is coextensive with production.” Mill taught this as early as 1808 in his tract (against Spence) Commerce defended.

664. Lettres à M. Malthus sur différents sujets d’écon. pol., notamment sur les causes de la stagnation générale du commerce (1820), pp. 26 seq.

665. Pol. Econ. (1820), p. 355, (1836) p. 316. Against Say’s general position see Definitions, p. 56 n.

666. Wealth of Nations, I. iii.

667. See above, p. 232. A curious footnote in Essay on Pop., 3rd ed., vol. ii. p. 264, suggested that there might be over-production in the case of high farming when its cost made the farmers charge more than the public could bear. But this note disappeared afterwards.

668. Ricardo, Pol. Econ. and Taxation, ch. xxi. p. 176 (MacCull.’s ed.). Mill (Elements, pp. 193 ft., 194) is more rigid.

669. Essay, 7th ed., IV. xiii. 473.

670. Pol. Econ. (1836), ch. iv. sect. iii. p. 239, slightly altered from 1st ed., 1820, ch. iv. sect. iii. p. 266.

671. Sismondi, Nouveaux Principes de l’Écon. Pol., 1819. See Malthus, Pol. Econ. (1820), p. 420, (1836) pp. 325 n., 366 n. Cf. on the other hand Essay, III. xiii. 372–3 and n.

672. Wealth of Nations, V. i. art. ii. pp. 350–353 (ed. MacC.). He is outrivalled by Ferguson, Civil Society, parts iv. and v. (ed. 1773).

673. 3rd ed. of Pol. Ec. and Tax. (1821), ch. xxxi. pp. 468–9, ed. MacCull., pp. 235–6. Cf. below (Critics). It is the position of Marx.

674. If we believe Bowring, Life of Bentham (ed. 1843), p. 176.

675. “Supposing that his opinions have not altered within the last twelve months.”—De Quincey, vol. iv. p. 231.

676. James Mill, Elements, pp. 193, 194. MacCull., Pol. Ec., p. 207. Cf. the tract Mordecai Mullion (1826).

677. Especially by Sunday Schools, according to the testimony of Samuel Bamford.—Radical, vol. i. p. 7 (1844).

678. We have his counterpart in our own day.

679. See below, Bk. III., for disproof of the charge that he was reactionary in his politics, like many economical optimists.