Note 148-3 — CHAPTER 1.

Ricardo has not unfrequently bewildered uncritical readers, by his habit—in which he is by no means always consistent—of using the expressions higher and lower wages, higher and lower profit of capital, to designate not the absolute greatness of these branches of income, either in money or in the wants of life, nor their greatness from a personal point of view, but only their relative greatness as compared with the aggregate income, the measure of the quota of the aggregate product which is divided among workmen, capitalists, etc. And yet, in the case of most economic questions, this is without doubt the less interesting side. Compare the polemic of R. Jones, On the Distribution of Wealth, 1831, I, 288 ff.; Senior, Outlines, 142 seq.; Carey, On the Rate of Wages, 1834, 24. Thus, according to Ricardo, the increase of one branch is possible only at the expense of another, while in the case of flourishing nations, the three branches increase absolutely and together. Ricardo, himself, was by no means unacquainted with this, as may be seen from Baumstark's German translation of his work, pp. 37, 108 ff.