From: glevy@PRATT.EDU
Date: Thu Sep 13 2007 - 08:33:55 EDT
> here are Ricardo's last written words. A letter > to James Mill written on 5 Sept. 1823. Ricardo fell > ill with ear infection on the 6th and died on the > 11th. This might help you understand Ricardo better: > > "...John does not allow for profits increasing at a > compound rate. The profits for 5 years are more than 5 > times the profits of one, and the profits of one year > more than 52 times the profits for one week, and it is > this which makes the great part of the difficulty. Beg > him to consider this and let me know if I am wrong in > my critique on his paper. I have been thinking a good > deal on this subject lately but without much > improvement--I see the same difficulties as before and > am more confirmed then ever that strictly speaking > there is not in nature any correct measure of value > nor can any ingenuity suggest one, for what > constitutes a correct measure for some things is a > reason why it cannot be a correct one for others. > Yours ever, David Ricardo". "John" in the letter was > apparently John Stuart Mill. The paper Ricardo is > referring to has not been found. Hi Ajit: Very interesting quote. Thanks. It certainly shows that at the end of his life, Ricardo was thinking about these "difficulties". Isn't the issue that he posed above related to *labor time* in addition to changes in the turnover of (constant) capital? E.g. changes in the *intensity of labor* and changes in the *hours of work* (including changes in the length of the working day) can help to explain (in part) the problem that Ricardo was thinking about. In solidarity, Jerry
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