Ricardo - David Ricardo

British economist. Born in London as the third son of a Jewish stockbroker who had naturalized in Britain from the Netherlands. From the age of 11 to 13, he served as a business apprentice to his uncle in Amsterdam, and after returning to Britain, he worked for his father. At the age of 20, he married a Quaker girl, and left his parents and Jewish community to join the Unitarian sect and become an independent stockbroker. Soon after becoming independent, he achieved success in bond trading and other areas, becoming one of Britain's leading stockbrokers, and using his spare time to study natural sciences such as mathematics, chemistry, and geology. He remained interested in collecting minerals throughout his life.

It is said that Ricardo became interested in economics in 1799, when he came across Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations while staying at the resort of Bath for his wife's health. In 1809, he made his debut as an economic commentator with an essay in the Morning Chronicle on the Bullion Controversy, which was fought over the causes of the high price of bullion and the fall in the exchange rate at the time. The following year, he published a pamphlet entitled The High Price of Bullion, and Evidence of the Depreciation of Bank Notes, and became a representative polemicist of the so-called Bullion School, which attributed the high price of bullion to the excessive issuance of bank notes. He then participated in the Corn Laws controversy, which was fought over the merits of the Corn Laws, which aimed to restrict the import of grain, and in 1815 published a pamphlet entitled An Essay on the Effect of the Low Price of Corn on the Profits of Capital, in which he concluded that the Corn Laws encouraged the cultivation of inferior land, resulting in a decline in the rate of profit, and took a stand against the Corn Laws. However, the Corn Laws passed through Parliament in the same year, and Ricardo continued to advocate the repeal of the Corn Laws. However, as he continued to debate with T. R. Malthus, who supported the Corn Laws, he deepened his study of economics in order to further refine his arguments against the Corn Laws. Then, with strong encouragement from his friend James Mill, he published his major work, "Principles of Political Economy and Taxation," in 1817, which became the second most important work of British classical economics in the history of economics after "The Wealth of Nations." He gained a reputation as an economist, and was elected to the House of Commons in 1819. He was highly regarded as an authority on economic issues, and, although he was an independent, he made an effort to reform the landlord-led Parliament of the time. On the other hand, even after he became a member of parliament, he continued his research into economics, publishing a revision of his major work (second edition 1819, third edition 1821), as well as works such as "On the Public Debt System" (1820) and "On the Protection of Agriculture" (1823). He also left behind several drafts and a vast collection of letters, but died at the age of 51 due to an ear disease.

Ricardo lived during the same period as the world's first Industrial Revolution in England, and his economics addressed the problems that the revolution created. He recognized that the dramatic development of labor productivity brought about by the Industrial Revolution made British manufactured goods cheaper and made exports more profitable, but on the other hand, agricultural production, which has diminishing returns, should be reduced as much as possible and the country should rely on imports of cheap foreign grain. Ricardo's vision was that cheap grain and cheap manufactured goods would reduce wages, which are the price of labor, and increase the rate of profit, which is the driving force of economic development. This also shows that Ricardo coldly theorized that the factory system brought about by the Industrial Revolution made workers subject to the same laws as commodities. At first, he thought that the introduction of machines made products cheaper and was advantageous to workers, but later he came to the view that it could take away jobs from workers, and revised his major work. He based his theoretical work on the labor invested theory of value, which states that a commodity has exchange value proportional to the amount of labor invested in it. However, he also recognized the phenomenon that the price of a commodity is the sum of its cost and average profit. This caused him to be troubled by a theoretical contradiction, and he devoted himself to resolving this problem until just before his death.

[Senga Shigeyoshi]

"The Complete Works of Ricardo, translated by Tsuneo Hori et al., 11 volumes (1969-78, Yushodo Shoten)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

イギリスの経済学者。オランダからイギリスに帰化したユダヤ人の証券取引業者の三男としてロンドンに生まれる。11歳から13歳にかけて、アムステルダムの伯父のもとで商業見習いをし、帰国後、父の仕事に従事した。20歳のとき、クェーカー教徒の娘と結婚したことを契機に、父母からもユダヤ人社会からも離れ、ユニテリアンの宗派に属するとともに、独立した証券取引業者となった。独立後まもなく公債取引などで成功し、イギリスで屈指の証券業者となり、余暇を利用して数学、化学、地質学など自然科学の研究を行うようになった。とくに鉱物の収集には終生興味をもち続けた。

　リカードが経済学に興味をもつようになったのは、1799年、夫人の健康のために滞在していた保養地バースで、アダム・スミスの『国富論』を手にしたことがきっかけである、と伝えられる。1809年、当時の地金(じきん)の高価格と為替(かわせ)の下落の原因をめぐって争われた地金論争に関する論文を『モーニング・クロニクル』に発表して経済時論家としてデビュー、翌年には小冊子『地金の高い価格、銀行券の減価の証拠』などを出版し、地金の高価格の原因を銀行券の過剰発行に求める、いわゆる地金派の代表的論客となった。続いて、穀物の輸入制限を企図する穀物法の是非をめぐって行われた穀物法論争に加わり、1815年には、小冊子『穀物の低価格が資本の利潤に及ぼす影響についての試論』を出版、穀物法は劣等地耕作を進展させ、利潤率の低下に帰結するとの結論を展示して、穀物法反対のための論陣を張った。しかし同年、穀物法は議会を通過してしまい、以降リカードは穀物法撤廃を主張し続けることになるが、穀物法に賛成するT・R・マルサスとの論争を続けるなかで、穀物法反対の論理をいっそう磨いていくために、経済学の研究を深めた。そして、友人ジェームズ・ミルの強い勧めもあって、1817年、主著『経済学および課税の原理』を公刊、これは経済学史のうえで、『国富論』に次ぐイギリス古典派経済学の代表作となった。彼は、経済学者としての名声を得て、19年には下院議員に選出され、経済問題に関する権威として大きな信望を集めるとともに、無党派ではあったが、当時の地主主導の議会を改革するために努力した。他方、彼は議員になってからも経済学研究を進め、主著の改訂（第2版1819、第3版1821）のほか、「公債制度論」（1820）、『農業保護論』（1823）などを発表し、またいくつかの草稿や膨大な書簡を残したが、耳の疾患のため51歳で亡くなった。

　リカードの生きた時代は、イギリスで世界最初の産業革命が進行した時代と重なっており、彼の経済学はその現実の生み出す問題に取り組んだものだった。彼は、産業革命のもたらした労働生産力の飛躍的発展が、イギリスの製造品を安価にし、その輸出を有利にしていること、反面、収穫が逓減(ていげん)していく農業生産はできるだけ縮小し、安価な外国穀物の輸入に頼るべきだとの認識にたった。安価な穀物、安価な製造品は、労働の価格たる賃金を安価にし、経済発展の推進力たる利潤率を増大させるというのがリカードの展望であった。このことは、産業革命のもたらした工場制度が、労働者を商品と同じ法則に服するものにしたことを、リカードが冷厳に理論化したことをも示している。彼は最初、機械の導入は製品を安価にし、労働者にも有利だと考えていたが、のちには、労働者から職を奪う可能性があるとの見解をもち、主著を改訂した。彼は、商品はそれに投下された労働量に比例して交換価値をもつという投下労働価値説をその理論的基礎にしたが、他方で、商品価格が費用と平均利潤を加算したものになるという現象も認めたために、理論的矛盾に悩み、死の直前までこの問題の解決に心血を注いだ。

［千賀重義］

『堀経夫他監訳『リカードウ全集』全11巻（1969～78・雄松堂書店）』

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