From: Philip Dunn (pscumnud@DIRCON.CO.UK)
Date: Sat Apr 09 2005 - 04:25:41 EDT
Quoting Ian Wright <iwright@GMAIL.COM>: > Hi Phil > > > Define labour-content of X as the labour required at the margin to produce > X: > > > > L = X dN/dX > > I can't accept this definition without more explanation. I didn't > understand your point. > > -Ian. > Hello Ian Chapter 2 of Ricardo's Principles http://www.econlib.org/library/Ricardo/ricP.html The exchangeable value of all commodities, whether they be manufactured, or the produce of the mines, or the produce of land, is always regulated, not by the less quantity of labour that will suffice for their production under circumstances highly favorable, and exclusively enjoyed by those who have peculiar facilities of production; but by the greater quantity of labour necessarily bestowed on their production by those who have no such facilities; by those who continue to produce them under the most unfavorable circumstances; meaning—by the most unfavorable circumstances, the most unfavorable under which the quantity of produce required, renders it necessary to carry on the production. So the unit labour-content of corn is determined at the margin of cultivation. and is equal to dN/dX, the marginal rate at which labour is required to produce extra corn. (This is traditional agriculture, no seed corn is bought. Further there are no implements, so no constant capital. The corn retained from the previous harvest for sowing is commodity capital.) Phil
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