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Cambridge Journal of Economics 27:547-562 (2003)
Copyright © 2003 Cambridge Political Economy Society

Article

Labour employed in production and labour commanded: a Ricardian conjecture

Nerio Naldi*

*Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza’.

Address for correspondence: Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche, Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza’, Via Cesalpino 12, Rome 00161, Italy; email: nerio.naldi{at}uniroma1.it

Abstract

This paper explains the origin of some important ambiguities in the analysis of value and prices put forward by Smith in his Wealth of Nations by considering the possibility that they reflect a previous draft of the book where the quantity of labour employed in production was indicated as the sole determinant of real price and exchange ratios. This conjecture is evidenced indirectly by the way in which Smith presented his own analysis at the end of Book I, Chapter IV; by some passages contained in Book I and Book II which suggest that the quantity of labour employed in production should play a crucial role within the analysis of exchangeable value; and by the important modifications introduced by Smith in Book I, Chapter VI, after the first edition of the Wealth of Nations was published.

Key Words: Adam Smith • Theory of value • Theory of prices • David Ricardo


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