...; and that is how I likewise interpret his transformation of the corn 174 History of Political Economy 52:1 (2020) commanded proxy for labor commanded into a labor embodied stan- dard by drawing attention to the supposedly constant labor cost/quantity in the production of corn: something that is irrelevant...

... value. Section 2 is devoted to that end. Then, in section 3, I consider Smith’s attempts to associate (changes in) the real price or real value of commodities with (changes in) the labor expended on their production, leading ultimately to his abandonment of the labor (and corn) commanded measure...

... forge this connecting chain, however, we must attend to the alteration that Smith made to his measuring unit to better suit it to his purpose. The Corn-Commanded Proxy At the same point that he promises to “hereafter . . . make several...

..., particularly silver.32 For the purpose of this, ultimately doomed, exercise, Smith switches from a labor commanded to a corn commanded approxi- mation to the real measure on the assumption of “nearly equal [i.e., con- stant] quantities of labour” per unit of corn output (I.xi.e.28). But, to finesse...

... The argument that a high price of corn might improve the ability of the laborer to command the “necessaries, conveniences and luxuries of life” due to the relative price effect on a given corn wage forms a principal argument in Malthus’s support for import restriction in the two pamphlets published...

... of, say, a general increase in the demand for corn, the worker’s money wage will not rise proportionately with the increased price of corn. Instead, it will rise only enough to provide the worker with the same command over corn as he had before.20 16. Principles of Political Economy, 2d ed...

... value] than silver, because, fro’m century to century, equal quantities of corn will command the same quantities of labour more nearly than equal quantities of silver” (I, 39). These statements can reasonably be interpreted in the following manner. The cost (= wage) of labour in terms...

..., that is, with decelerating accumulation, maintaining that the laborer “will receive more money wages but his corn wage will be reduced; and not only his command of corn, but his general condition will be deteriorated, Hollander / The “New View” Confirmed 497 by his finding it more difficult...

... be worked out independently of the whole theory of relative prices. Hollander claims there is a definite tendency among modern writers to accept this position and downplay the importance of price effects to the Classical analysis. According to Hollander, the widespread acceptance of the “corn...

... of supporting such an increase had entirely ceased. (297) “We cannot then,” Malthus concludes, “make the supposition of a natu- ral and constant price of labour, at least if we mean by such a price, an unvarying quantity of the necessaries of life.” On the other hand, the fall in the real (corn) wage...

..., Smith appears to reverse himself and de- part radically from his predecessors by coming down strongly on the side of commutative justice. Hont and Ignatieff (1983) have analyzed Smith’s position on the corn trade at length. They conclude that for Smith, the rights of property must...

... the standard mode of “refuting” Ricardo’s theory. Nassau Senior, although sympathetic to many aspects of Ricardo’s thought, nonetheless felt obliged to object to the causal sequence used by Ricardo to relate the price of corn to the extension of cultivation into marginal land.26 He suggests...

.... The local military commander sent his men to Mis- sion Santa Clara with a pack train to buy corn. The military comman- der assumed that the need of his troops would be enough to persuade 14. “Since I have been here, [tanning of leather] has produced 10,000 pesosWere- ceive annually from Mexico...

.... Ricardianism has been taken to mean some or all of the following: (a) an excessive reliance on abstract, de- ductive models (Keynes, Schumpeter), (b) a dogmatic acceptance of Say’s law (Keynes, Checkland), (c) the labor theory of value (Foxwell, Meek), and (d) the corn model of economic growth...

... a similar question specifically about capital: “How can the ownership of something which ultimately is not scarce, because augmentable by new pro- .duction, command a rent?” 5. Pasinetti (1969, 519) states that in a one-commodity (corn) model the “inverse mon- otonic relationship between...

... corn wages of labour will not generally lead to early mar- riages . . .; . . . the great mass of [labourers] will not only have suf- ficient means of subsistence, but be able to command no inconsiderable quantity of those conveniences and comforts, which, at the same time...

... concepts. For, as Ricardo argues in an evident attempt to prove that Smith contradicted himself, “a man is rich or poor, according to the abundance of necessaries and luxuries which he can command; and whether the exchangeable value of these for money, for corn, or for labour, be high or low...

.... The discussion in the footnote on pp. 317-19 of Torrens’ idea that costs of production can be rep- resented by quarters of corn and suits of clothing also occurs in An Elementary Treatise, pp. 109-10, and the idea that labour commanded is “the only standard of the real value of every thing...

..., when a sudden abundance and cheapness of corn and other com- modities, from a great supply meeting a deficient demand, so diminished the value of the income of the country, that it could no longer command the same quantity of labour at the same price; 31. Definitions in Political...

... will be reduced; and not only his command of corn, but his general condition will be deteriorated . . .’ ’ (p. 102). Barkai has noticed this problem in Ricardo’s descrip- tion of wage formation. He asserts that this difficulty caused Ricardo to come to the fallacious conclusion that the share of [real...