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.

Rent is that portion of the produce of the earth, which is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil.

The value of a commodity, or the quantity of any other commodity for which it will exchange, depends on the relative quantity of labour which is necessary for its production, and not on the greater or less compensation which is paid for that labour.

No power, however great, can make two things equal which are unequal.

It is not by the actual quantity of labour that the value of a commodity is regulated, but by the quantity of labour which is necessary to its production under the most unfavourable circumstances.

The natural price of labour is that price which is necessary to enable the labourers, one with another, to subsist, and to perpetuate their race, without either increase or diminution.

The market price of labour is the price which is really paid for it, from the natural operation of the proportion of the supply to the demand; labour is dear when it is scarce, and cheap when it is plentiful.

The rate of profit can never be increased but by a fall in the wages of labour, unless the price of the produce of the land should fall.

The profits of the farmer, or of any other manufacturer, are not regulated by the price of corn or other produce, but by the difference between the price at which he sells his produce, and the price at which he buys the labour and other articles necessary to its production.

The interest of the landlord is always opposed to the interest of every other class in the community.

It is an acknowledged truth, that no country can long flourish, where its farmers and manufacturers are not prosperous.

The quantity of money, which is in circulation, must always be in proportion to the quantity of commodities which are to be circulated by it.

The value of money, like the value of any other commodity, is determined by the proportion between its supply and demand.

The exportation of gold and silver, when the currency is depreciated, is not a cause but an effect of the depreciation.

The true policy of a country is to make its capital as productive as possible.

The division of labour, by increasing the skill and dexterity of the workman, and by saving the time which is lost in passing from one species of work to another, very considerably increases the productive powers of labour.

It is the comparative, and not the absolute, cost of production, which determines the relative value of commodities.

Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and labour to such employments as are most beneficial to each.

The extension of the market, which is the consequence of the extension of commerce, is always a powerful stimulus to improvement.

The accumulation of capital, though it increases the demand for labour, yet, by increasing the supply of commodities, tends to lower their value.