著者

星野 富一

出版者

The Japanese Society for the History of Economic Thought

雑誌

経済学史学会年報 (ISSN:04534786)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.36, no.36, pp.52-63, 1998 (Released:2010-08-05)

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This paper focuses on how the theoretical framework of Ricardo's new position on machinery has changed on account of a revolutionary change in his conclusions in the third edition of Principles:. In this edition he proposed, namely, that some portion of the laboring class might lose employment because of the introduction of new machinery.Professor Takuya Hatori claims that Ricardo has maintained the proposition that the demand for labor depends on the size of a nation's gross product while admittingly only that there will be a diminution in the demand for labor due to the introduction of new machinery.My view is that Ricardo has attained the following important results: First, Ricardo has refuted ‘the compensation theory’ by assuming a socially representative unit of capital, by precisely setting the theoretical framework for fixed aggregate capital, and by introducing a theory in which circulating capital is replaced with fixed capital; second, he has not only asserted that an introduction of machinery probably diminishes the quantity of gross product and, hence, the demand for labor, but has also tried to prove it.