ABSTRACT
Adam Smith described labour as the original price of all things, and it is the business of the economist to account for differences of price and for changes of price. Hitherto Ricardo’s doctrine that demand exercises no permanent influence on price appears reasonable enough when applied to commodities that anyone can produce in unlimited quantity at a uniform cost of production. Commercial industry co-operates in production, as well as manufacturing industry, in raising the value of a product by its transport from one place to another. The terms on which a commodity can be produced, so as to remunerate the producer, will remain the same although the demand should be for five times the quantity produced.
