"It is not by the absolute quantity of produce obtained by either class, that we can correctly judge of the rate of profit, rent, and wages, but by the quantity of labour required to obtain that produce"
About this Quote
The intent is technical but the subtext is political. If profits, rents, and wages are judged by labor required, then class outcomes stop looking like moral deserts or the natural rewards of ownership and start looking like consequences of underlying production conditions. Landlords, in Ricardo’s system, don’t get richer because they’re more virtuous; rent rises because cultivating food pushes onto less fertile land, requiring more labor per unit. Profits get squeezed not by employers suddenly turning stingy, but by rising costs of subsistence that force wages upward toward a social minimum. Labor time becomes the X-ray that reveals how distribution shifts even when “the economy” looks healthy in aggregate.
Context matters: post-Napoleonic Britain, industrial change, and fierce fights over the Corn Laws. Ricardo’s labor-centric lens is also a strategic refusal of price illusions. Output and money values can swell from scarcity, tariffs, or speculation; labor requirements are meant to anchor analysis to something sturdier than market mood. It’s not sentimental about workers, but it’s a structural critique of complacent prosperity talk: if each unit of produce demands more labor, society can appear richer while actually getting poorer at the level that counts - effort.
Quote Details
| Topic | Money |
|---|---|
| Source | David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), Chapter I (On Value) — passage arguing rate of profit, rent, and wages should be judged by the quantity of labour required to obtain produce. |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Ricardo, David. (2026, January 15). It is not by the absolute quantity of produce obtained by either class, that we can correctly judge of the rate of profit, rent, and wages, but by the quantity of labour required to obtain that produce. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-is-not-by-the-absolute-quantity-of-produce-141357/
Chicago Style
Ricardo, David. "It is not by the absolute quantity of produce obtained by either class, that we can correctly judge of the rate of profit, rent, and wages, but by the quantity of labour required to obtain that produce." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-is-not-by-the-absolute-quantity-of-produce-141357/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"It is not by the absolute quantity of produce obtained by either class, that we can correctly judge of the rate of profit, rent, and wages, but by the quantity of labour required to obtain that produce." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/it-is-not-by-the-absolute-quantity-of-produce-141357/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
