Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Interpretations of David Ricardo
- 2 From bullion to corn: the early writings
- 3 The falling rate of profit, wages and the law of markets
- 4 The labour theory of value (I)
- 5 The labour theory of value (II)
- 6 The appropriation of Ricardo
- 7 Concluding remarks
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - Concluding remarks
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 February 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Interpretations of David Ricardo
- 2 From bullion to corn: the early writings
- 3 The falling rate of profit, wages and the law of markets
- 4 The labour theory of value (I)
- 5 The labour theory of value (II)
- 6 The appropriation of Ricardo
- 7 Concluding remarks
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Ricardo's early writings on profitability, discussed in chapter 2, have come to be identified with the ‘corn model’ analysis, attributed to Ricardo by Piero Sraffa. The reasons for the widespread popularity of Sraffa's interpretation are not difficult to fathom. For some time past it had been generally thought that Ricardo was preoccupied with the Corn Law issue, and that he had a fondness for heroically simplified models, directed to the solution of real-world problems. The ‘corn model’ interpretation fitted the bill on both counts. Additionally, it had the advantage of pedagogical simplicity, it neatly rationalised the statements of a ‘regulatory’ role for farmers' profits, it answered the question, raised at the beginning of the nineteenth century, of how Ricardo could sustain his position while subscribing to the ‘adding up’ treatment of pricing, and it gave order to a confusing body of primary literature. Admittedly, there was no extant record of the model in Ricardo's writings, but various passages could be construed in its reflection; and there was, after all, the Essay on Profits, which had earlier tempted Wesley C. Mitchell to claim a surviving ‘corn model’ analysis. It is no wonder that the textbooks were rewritten.
The implication of my study is that they were rewritten in the service of mythology. Ricardo's writings do not yield any decisive evidence in favour of Sraffa's interpretation: an interpretation which, by imposing sense, obscures the chaotic nature of Ricardo's early writings, as he struggled to articulate new ideas within an inherited discourse.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Interpreting Ricardo , pp. 294 - 303Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1993