The Project Gutenberg EBook of On The Principles of Political Economy, and
Taxation, by David Ricardo

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Title: On The Principles of Political Economy, and Taxation

Author: David Ricardo

Release Date: July 31, 2010 [EBook #33310]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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ON

THE PRINCIPLES

OF

POLITICAL ECONOMY,

AND

TAXATION.

BY DAVID RICARDO, Esq.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET

1817.

J. M^{c}CREERY. Printer,

Black Horse Court, London.

PREFACE.

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.

But in different stages of society, the proportions of the whole produce
of the earth which will be allotted to each of these classes, under the
names of rent, profit, and wages, will be essentially different;
depending mainly on the actual fertility of the soil, on the
accumulation of capital and population, and on the skill, ingenuity, and
instruments employed in agriculture.

To determine the laws which regulate this distribution, is the principal
problem in Political Economy: much as the science has been improved by
the writings of Turgot, Stuart, Smith, Say, Sismondi, and others, they
afford very little satisfactory information respec