Definitions in Political Economy

Note 46 — Chapter VII · ON THE DEFINITION AND APPLICATION OF TERMS, BY MR. MACCULLOCH, IN HIS “PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL ECONOMY.”

Reading edition

Principles of Polit. Econ., part iii. p. 223. This is a most remarkable passage to come from Mr. Macculloch, who, though he agrees with Mr. Ricardo in words, has, in reality, deserted him, and agrees in substance with Adam Smith. According to the new meaning, which Mr. Macculloch has given to the term profits—the quantity of labour required to produce a commodity, is precisely equal to the quantity of labour for which it will ordinarily exchange, and certainly not equal to what Mr. Ricardo meant by the quantity of labour bestowed upon it.

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