Notwithstanding the bad weather I have not failed to enjoy myself, for I
have been to Cheltenham, Malvern, and Worcester, and latterly to Bath.
To be sure the continued rains make it less pleasant than it otherwise
would be, but, as I am not at a loss for amusement within doors, I
contrive to take my walks while it is fine, and return to my library
with the recommencement of rain....
I hope your additional volume will soon follow your new edition of the
old work[138]. I shall be glad to see in a connected form your matured
opinions on the progress of rent, profits, and wages, and in what manner
they are affected by the increasing difficulty of procuring food, by
the increase of capital, and the improvement of machinery. I fear we
shall not agree on these subjects, and I should be very glad if we could
fairly submit our different views to the public, that we might have some
able heads engaged in considering it [_sic_][139]. Of this, however, I
have little hope, for though I feel strongly the truth of my theory I
cannot succeed in stating it clearly. I have been very much impeded by
the question of price and value, my former ideas on those points not
being correct. My present view may be equally faulty, for it leads to
conclusions at variance with all my preconceived opinions. I shall
continue to work, if only for my own satisfaction, till I have given my
theory a consistent form.
You say that you think I have sometimes conceded that if population were
miraculously stopped, while the most fertile land remained uncultivated,
profits would fall upon the supposition of an increase of capital still
going on. I concede it now. Profits I think depend on wages,--wages
depend on demand and supply of labour, and on the cost of the
necessaries on which wages are expended. These two causes may be
operating on profits at the same time, either in the same, or in an
opposite direction. In the case you put wages would have a tendency to
keep stationary as far as the supply of food was concerned, but they
would have a tendency to rise in consequence of the demand for labour
increasing, whilst the supply continued the same. Under such
circumstances profits would of course fall. You must, however, allow
that this is an extraordinary case, and out of the common course of
events, for the tendency of the population to increase is, in our state
of society, more than equal to that of the capital to increase. I shall
be in London on Thursday or Friday next.... I should be glad if some
fortunate accident were to take you to town at the same time. If so let
me know where you are to be found; a line directed to the Stock Exchange
will be certain to find me. We shall not finally leave the country till
January or February. I wish you would come and see a little more of
Gatcomb during your Xmas vacation....
Ever truly yours,
DAVID RICARDO.