"Profits might also increase, because improvements might take place in agriculture, or in the implements of husbandry, which would augment the produce with the same cost of production"
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Ricardo is doing something quietly radical here: he’s separating “profit” from the comforting moral story that it comes from thrift, virtue, or hard bargaining. In this line, profit rises for a more mechanical reason - productivity. If agriculture improves, or if better tools let the same labor and land yield more output, the economy can expand without raising the underlying “cost of production.” That phrase is the tell. Ricardo is building an argument where distribution (who gets what share) hinges on technical conditions and constraints, not on anyone’s personal merit.
The subtext is a jab at the complacent landlord economy of early-19th-century Britain. Ricardo is writing in the shadow of the Corn Laws and recurring food-price panics, where rent and grain prices could soar while wages stayed pressured by subsistence needs. If food gets cheaper because yields rise, wages don’t have to climb just to keep workers alive. That can leave a larger residual for profits, strengthening the capitalist’s position relative to landlords and, indirectly, labor.
It works because it sounds modest - “might also increase” - while smuggling in a worldview: growth is not just more trade or more toil, but a shift in the production function itself. Ricardo’s intent is analytical, but the stakes are political. He’s arguing that innovation in the fields can reorder class power in the city, and that policy choices (protecting land rents vs. enabling cheaper grain and better methods) decide whether profits are squeezed or set free.
The subtext is a jab at the complacent landlord economy of early-19th-century Britain. Ricardo is writing in the shadow of the Corn Laws and recurring food-price panics, where rent and grain prices could soar while wages stayed pressured by subsistence needs. If food gets cheaper because yields rise, wages don’t have to climb just to keep workers alive. That can leave a larger residual for profits, strengthening the capitalist’s position relative to landlords and, indirectly, labor.
It works because it sounds modest - “might also increase” - while smuggling in a worldview: growth is not just more trade or more toil, but a shift in the production function itself. Ricardo’s intent is analytical, but the stakes are political. He’s arguing that innovation in the fields can reorder class power in the city, and that policy choices (protecting land rents vs. enabling cheaper grain and better methods) decide whether profits are squeezed or set free.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wealth |
|---|---|
| Source | David Ricardo, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817). Passage in the Principles discussing that improvements in agriculture or implements of husbandry can augment produce at the same cost and thereby raise profits. |
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