Value and Riches

Ferdinando Meacci (ferdinando.meacci@unipd.it)

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: The distinction between ‘value’ and ‘riches’ was first highlighted by Ricardo in Chapter XX, ‘Value and Riches, their distinctive Properties’, of his Principles (1821). Ricardo’s aim was to clear up Smith’s famous statement that “every man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, conveniences, and amusements of human life” (1776, Bk.I, Ch.V). The paper argues that Ricardo's criticism of Smith's statement is as inaccurate as Smith's peculiar way of developing by such a statement his crucial distinction between the wealth of an individual and the wealth of a society as well as his analysis of the mechanisms by which the search for increasing the former (via the notion of "exchangeable values") results in an actual increase of the latter (via the notion of "use values").

Keywords: Smith; Ricardo; wealth; use values; exchange values (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B0 B12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998, Revised 2009-04-15
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/20023/1/MPRA_paper_20023.pdf revised version (application/pdf)

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