Josiah Tucker, Economist; A Study in the History of Economics Volume 49-51 - Walter Ernest Clark

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... 100." ' 2. The writer of the present essay has already acknowl ' Letters of Ricardo to McCulloch, p. 153. 'Ibcents'd., p. 132. 'Letters to McCulloch, p. I 53. This shows that Ricardo was not satisfied in principle with his treatment of the value of scarcity goods. edged his indebtedness to Professor von Wieser for suggestion of the means of interpreting the main lines of the history of the labor theory. Professor von Wieser's terse judgment of Ricardo's writings on value is contained in the following sentences: " rVhat, then, did Ricardo attempt? His whole endeavor exhausted itself in trying to show that the philosophical and the empirical theories of Adam Smith--both of which, indeed, in taking up this position he had to clear and carry further--did not contradict each other so much as at first sight would appear." 1 The manner of putting this is objectionable, in that it implies, I believe, an improper subordination of Ricardo's theory to that of Smith. While Ricardo quotes Smith freely, his exposition of the subject of value is in no sense a summary and criticism of S1nith's views. On the contrary, he writes with a remarkably independent spirit. It is, nevertheless, true that the principal part of the reasoning of Ricardo is concerned with the adaptation of the empirical account of value to the philosophical, that is, to the philosophical account as he understands it. These two accounts are almost inextricably entangled in Ricardo's work, but their disentanglement is the sole method of exhibiting the ultimate purport of his reasonings. For, in essence, his theory is as follows: The value of those things whose value is_subje_ct _to_anNascertainable principle depends on..