Wealth

‹ 9 · Outline · 11 ›

10.The theory of value, price, wages, profit and rent

10a.Value in use and in exchange; labour as the measure

See also: Labor 5a

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

• p. 37The two men compare payments before onlookers; Cellini's gold is twice Lucagnolo's silver.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

• p. 73Sancho would trade the island government for the recipe, reckoning it worth two reals an ounce.read · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

• p. 406The value of things contracted for is measured by the appetite of the contractors; the just price is what they consent to.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

• p. 32–33Distinguishes value in use from value in exchange (water versus diamond) and outlines inquiry into real and natural price of commodities.read · scan
• p. 34A man is rich or poor by the labour he can command; labour is the real measure of exchangeable value.read · scan
• p. 36Money is the common estimate of value, but gold and silver vary in value; labour alone is the real standard, money the nominal price.read · scan
• p. 37–38Real versus nominal price of commodities and labour; variations in silver's value affect money rents.read · scan
• p. 38–39American mines lowered silver's value, eroding money rents; corn rents kept value better, as with college leases.read · scan
• p. 39Corn better preserves real value over time than silver, since it is the labourer's subsistence; corn rent varies less.read · scan
• p. 40Corn rents vary little across centuries but greatly year to year; silver's value governs average corn and labour prices.read · scan
• p. 40–41Labour is the only universal, accurate measure of value; corn better across centuries, silver year to year; money exact only at same time and place.read · scan
• p. 41–42Merchant trading between distant places considers only money price; nominal price governs purchases and sales despite differing real price.read · scan
• p. 48Smith derives the exchange value of goods from labour, as in beaver and deer, before stock and land are appropriated.read · scan
• p. 50–51Price resolves into wages, profit and rent; landlords demand rent even for natural produce, and labour measures all three.read · scan
• p. 51Price of corn, flour, bread and linen resolves into rent, wages and profit, with profits multiplying through stages of manufacture.read · scan
• p. 52Wages, profit and rent are the three original sources of all revenue and exchangeable value, distributed among society's members.read · scan
• p. 53All revenue derives from labour, stock or land as wages, profit or rent; interest is derivative revenue, and taxes and salaries trace to these.read · scan
• p. 54Smith shows how rent, profit and wages are confounded when one person combines landlord, farmer and labourer, and how annual produce grows or shrinks.read · scan
• p. 66–67Explains real versus apparent price through productivity of labour; the end of the original state with appropriation of land and accumulation of stock.read · scan
• p. 383–384Corn's real value equals the labour it can maintain, so bounties and monopoly raise only nominal price and cannot enrich farmers or gentlemen.read · scan
• p. 384–385Real value of commodities is measured by their price relative to corn; bounties force industry into less advantageous channels and burden the public.read · scan

Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of MoralsVol. 32

• p. 344–345Skill and diligence in labour have a market value, contrasted with the incomparable dignity of moral worth.read · scan

Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25

• p. 396Seven volumes sell dearer than one; the Odyssey priced per sheet is worth a fraction of Pickwick.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

• p. 21–22Ricardo's political economy is taught and encouraged by James Mill.read · scan
• p. 42Say is introduced as an eminent political economist and friend of Mill's father.read · scan
• p. 151–152Distinguishes laws of production of wealth, which are natural, from its distribution, which depends on human will.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

• p. 159Mares slaughtered for hides worth little since they are valued only for breeding.read · scan

10b.Price formation, competition and monopoly

See also: Labor 7b · Law 8c

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

• p. 142Rich men's engrossing and monopoly should be checked.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

• p. 224Merchants' growing numbers and monopoly keep prices of foreign wares high, as shown by detailed price comparisons.read · scan
• p. 224–225Merchants trade widely yet prices do not fall; yeomen prosper by farming and buy lands of unthrifty gentlemen.read · scan
• p. 325Big occupiers buy rather than raise cattle, raising cow prices.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

• p. 56–57Defines natural rates of wages, profit and rent and the natural price of a commodity as what it truly costs to bring to market.read · scan
• p. 57Market price is governed by quantity supplied against effectual demand; scarcity, as in famine or blockade, raises prices through competition.read · scan
• p. 58Oversupply drives market price below natural price; competition and self-interest of landlords, labourers and employers restore it by withdrawing land, labour or stock.read · scan
• p. 59Natural price is the central price toward which market prices gravitate; supply adjusts to demand, though agricultural output fluctuates more than manufactures.read · scan
• p. 60–61Temporary price fluctuations fall on wages and profit more than rent; public mourning example shows over- and under-stocking of commodities and labour.read · scan
• p. 61–62Traders conceal high profits to avoid rivals; manufacturing secrets sustain extraordinary profit longer than trade secrets, which are really high wages of private labour.read · scan
• p. 62–63Singular soils and monopolies keep market price above natural price; monopoly price is the highest obtainable, free competition price the lowest sustainable.read · scan
• p. 63Corporation privileges and apprenticeship statutes act as enlarged monopolies keeping prices and wages above natural rate; market price rarely stays below natural price.read · scan
• p. 125Shortening apprenticeship would lower wages and profits but make artificers' work cheaper for the public.read · scan
• p. 126–127Corporations restrain competition to keep prices and profits up, enriching towns in their dealings with the country.read · scan
• p. 127–128Explains how town and country exchange produce, and how regulations raising wages and profits give towns an advantage over the country in trade.read · scan
• p. 128Town trade and manufactures yield great fortunes more often than country agriculture, so stock and labour drift to towns.read · scan
• p. 130–131Accumulated town stock, its profit lowered by competition, flows to the country; town advantage rests on encouragement contrary to nature.read · scan
• p. 131–132Tradesmen conspire to raise prices; corporations limit competition and weaken the customers' discipline over workmen.read · scan
• p. 138Obstructing labour's circulation obstructs stock's; wealthy merchants enter corporate towns more easily than poor artificers.read · scan
• p. 210Narrowing competition raises profits above natural level, taxing fellow-citizens; merchants' commercial proposals deserve suspicion.read · scan
• p. 377–378The bounty raises only the nominal price of corn and degrades silver's value; it cannot raise real price or benefit farmers, and corn regulates other prices.read · scan
• p. 415Smith reasons that depressed wool price barely reduces output because farmers profit from the carcase; prices adjust across parts of the beast.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Origin of SpeciesVol. 11

• p. 43–44Enormous prices for pedigree animals show what breeders have achieved.read · scan

10c.Wages and the progress of national wealth

See also: Labor 6b

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

• p. 160–161Don Quixote assures Sancho his wages are provided in his testament, and the island promised.read · scan
• p. 161–162Sancho wonders what reward, islands or kingdoms, knights-errant give squires after blows.read · scan
• p. 189Sancho recalls the daily marvedis the ass earned, defraying half his expenses.read · scan
• p. 465He promises Sancho wages or an island, provided for in his testament.read · scan

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15

• p. 60–61Apollyon's hard service and wages too meagre to live on are contrasted with the new master.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

• p. 50–51Keimer lures workers with low wages promised to rise, and pays Franklin well only to exploit his teaching.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

• p. 64–65Smith outlines forthcoming inquiry into causes determining wages, profit and rent, and how they vary with a society's riches, poverty, and advancing or declining state.read · scan
• p. 68Masters' accumulated stock lets them outlast workmen who cannot subsist a week without employment.read · scan
• p. 69–70Cantillon's calculation of labourers' minimum earnings relative to maintenance and a slave's worth.read · scan
• p. 70–71Demand for wage-labour rises only with revenue and stock, so it grows with national wealth.read · scan
• p. 71Wages rise with the growth of national wealth, not its size; thriving North America outpays richer England.read · scan
• p. 72Prosperity of a country is marked by increase in inhabitants, not present riches.read · scan
• p. 72A country long stationary at its full complement of riches offers low wages despite great wealth.read · scan
• p. 72–74Poverty of Chinese and decaying funds for labour in Bengal contrast with thriving North America.read · scan
• p. 75Scanty maintenance of the poor signals stagnation, and generous wages signal growing national wealth.read · scan
• p. 76Price differences between places and commodities' transport show economic reasoning about prices and wages.read · scan
• p. 77Scottish diet differs from English as effect, not cause, of wage differences: the rich keep coaches because they are rich.read · scan
• p. 77Improvements of agriculture, manufactures and commerce raised demand for labour and its price, earlier in England than Scotland.read · scan
• p. 79Smith shows the real reward of labour, in cheaper food, clothing and goods, has risen more than its money price.read · scan
• p. 80Smith argues improved circumstances of the labouring majority benefit society; no society flourishes when most members are poor.read · scan
• p. 81Population growth differs across America, Europe and China according to the demand for labour.read · scan
• p. 82–83Liberal wages are the effect of increasing wealth and of public prosperity; the labourer is happiest in the progressive state.read · scan
• p. 83–84Cheap provisions enlarge the fund for maintaining servants, raising demand and the price of labour.read · scan
• p. 85Landlords and farmers profit from high provision prices, so masters favour dear years.read · scan
• p. 86Manufacture output in Scotland and Yorkshire shows no consistent connection with dear or cheap seasons.read · scan
• p. 86–87The money price of labour is regulated by demand for labour and the price of necessaries; manufacture depends on demand abroad.read · scan
• p. 87–88Funds for employing industry rise and fall with plenty and scarcity, moving the price of labour.read · scan
• p. 88Increase of stock raises wages and productive powers, lowering the labour cost of many commodities.read · scan
• p. 101–102Wages and profit differ across employments because of the employments' circumstances and the policy of Europe.read · scan
• p. 104–105Pecuniary recompence and profits of stock differ across occupations according to ease of learning and steadiness of work.read · scan
• p. 107Professions are pecuniarily under-recompensed while mechanic trades yield gains exceeding expenses.read · scan
• p. 119Cottagers' tenements formed part of their pay, misleading writers who treat ancient prices of labour as wonderfully low.read · scan
• p. 133Compares curates' pay with masons' wages over time.read · scan
• p. 135Rewards of professions depend on competition and who bears educational cost.read · scan
• p. 143–144Wage differences between neighboring places result from the artificial parish boundary.read · scan
• p. 209–210Wages rise with growing national wealth and fall with decline; profit behaves oppositely, so merchants' interest diverges from the public's.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

• p. 152Wages, profits and rent are determined by causes under given institutions, not by inherent necessity.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

• p. 490–491Poverty, low wages and dependence on bought rice and salt meat threaten the island's poor working class.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

• p. 20–21Merchants and captains grudge sailors their meager twelve-dollar wage, extracting labor to justify it.read · scan
• p. 262Crew ask about wages and ships in port, news from home.read · scan

John Ruskin, Sesame and LiliesVol. 28

• p. 133Question of pay for hard work versus pleasant work versus none.read · scan

10d.Profit of stock and the rate of interest

See also: Labor 6b · Law 8c

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

• p. 49Accumulated stock yields profit to the employer, a component of price distinct from wages and proportioned to capital.read · scan
• p. 90Profits of stock fall as stock increases through competition, though they depend on the same causes as wages.read · scan
• p. 90–91Interest rates indicate profits of stock; rates track profit, and legal interest limits followed the market.read · scan
• p. 91–92Since Henry VIII national wealth has advanced faster, wages rising and profits falling, more in towns than countryside.read · scan
• p. 92Compares legal and market interest rates, profits and wages in France, England and Scotland as signs of a country's wealth and progress.read · scan
• p. 93Holland is richer than England, with low interest and profits; low profit signals prosperity and redundant capital, not decay of trade.read · scan
• p. 94In new colonies profits and interest are high, falling as land fills and stock accumulates; a great stock grows faster than a small one.read · scan
• p. 94–95New territory and trade can raise profits and interest in a rich country by drawing stock away from old trades and lessening competition.read · scan
• p. 96Diminished capital lowers wages and raises profits and interest, as in Bengal; a fully rich country would have very low wages and profits.read · scan
• p. 97China, stationary in riches, has high interest because oppression of the poor establishes the rich's monopoly; laws and institutions limit wealth.read · scan
• p. 97–98Interest must exceed the compensation for losses; in a fully rich country, low interest forces nearly everyone into business.read · scan
• p. 98–99Highest profit would eat up landlord's rent; interest ought to bear a proportion to clear profit, roughly half, for the risk borne.read · scan
• p. 99High profits raise prices more than high wages, as compound interest exceeds simple interest, yet merchants complain only of wages.read · scan
• p. 102–103Disagreeableness and disgrace raise the profits of stock, as with the inn-keeper.read · scan
• p. 103Compares trained skill to capital laid out, which must return at least ordinary profit.read · scan
• p. 105–106Competition among workers and traders levels earnings; profits of stock depend on the trader, not the trade.read · scan
• p. 110–111Insurance premiums must cover losses, management costs and ordinary profit of stock, so insurers rarely grow rich.read · scan
• p. 111–112Rates of profit vary with certainty of returns, lower in inland than foreign trade.read · scan
• p. 113Profits of stock are more nearly level across trades than wages of labour; apparent profits are often wages disguised.read · scan
• p. 114The small grocer's apparent profit is mostly wages of his labour; extent of market lowers apparent profit while distance raises prime cost.read · scan
• p. 116–117New manufactures promise extraordinary profits that competition reduces to the common level.read · scan
• p. 117–118Profits of stock and commodity prices fluctuate with demand and produce; speculative merchants exploit variable prices.read · scan
• p. 281Interest falls as stock to lend increases, since competing capitals lower profits and raise wages; Smith rejects the view that the influx of precious metals lowered interest.read · scan
• p. 282Smith argues a fall in silver's value could not lower the rate of interest, since capital and interest fall proportionally.read · scan
• p. 283More silver only raises nominal prices and wages; real value, labour commanded and rate of profit and interest stay the same.read · scan
• p. 284Increased commodities raise the capital's real command of labour, lowering profits and interest even as money's value rises.read · scan
• p. 285–286Land prices depend on the interest rate, rising in years' purchase as interest falls, comparing England and France.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

• p. 448Capital yields treble interest in the colony, but exports of wool and whale-oil are limited; commerce may be its future.read · scan

10e.Rent and the price of land produce

See also: Progress 5a · Labor 5a · Government 8a

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

• p. 328–329Sheep's profit from fleece, flesh, manure and milk; great sheepmasters and losses from the rot.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

• p. 120London lodging is cheap because house-rent is dear; landlords act as monopolists and rents rise.read · scan
• p. 147Rent is the price for the use of land, naturally the highest the tenant can afford after stock and ordinary farming profit.read · scan
• p. 148Rent is a monopoly price set by what the farmer can afford, not by the landlord's improvement outlays; surplus over cost of bringing goods to market goes to rent.read · scan
• p. 149–150Rent enters price differently from wages and profit: they cause high or low price, while rent is its effect; land always yields a surplus for rent.read · scan
• p. 150Rent varies with fertility and with situation; land near towns yields greater rent because carriage costs are lower.read · scan
• p. 150–151Good roads and canals, by lowering carriage costs, are the greatest improvements, breaking monopoly and raising rents through competition.read · scan
• p. 151–152Smith explains how relative prices of bread and butcher's-meat shift with the stage of agriculture, and how rents and cattle prices rose in the Highlands.read · scan
• p. 152–153Rent and profit of pasture are regulated by those of corn; the price of meat must compensate its smaller yield per acre.read · scan
• p. 153–154Land use, rents and the price of grass versus corn vary with population, enclosure and imports, as in Holland and ancient Italy.read · scan
• p. 154–155Corn regulates the rent and profit of pasture; Smith compares historical prices of beef to show meat has grown cheaper relative to bread.read · scan
• p. 155–156Compares wheat and beef prices across periods; rent and profit of food land regulate all other cultivated land, with extra returns only compensating extra expense.read · scan
• p. 156Gardens yield higher rent and profit only to compensate greater expense, skill and risk; ancient writers weighed the cost of enclosing them.read · scan
• p. 157Vineyard profitability, and the fallaciousness of comparing profit and expense of new agricultural projects.read · scan
• p. 157–159Profit of special crops is regulated by that of corn and pasture unless the suitable land is too scarce to meet demand.read · scan
• p. 159Wines of peculiar flavour sell above ordinary rates because supply falls short of demand, and the excess goes to the landlord's rent.read · scan
• p. 160Sugar colonies resemble choice vineyards, with prices far above the natural proportion to corn, as Cochin-china prices show.read · scan
• p. 160–161Tobacco versus corn and sugar profitability; European prohibition of tobacco gives Virginia a monopoly, and planters restrain output.read · scan
• p. 161–162Rent of food-producing land regulates all other land rents; a more productive staple would raise landlord's rent and his command of others' labour.read · scan
• p. 163Smith shows rice yields larger surplus than corn, so rice land yields greater rent and profit to landlords.read · scan
• p. 163–164Potatoes yield more nourishment per acre than wheat or rice, so would raise landlords' surplus and rents if made the common food.read · scan
• p. 164–165Food is the one land produce that always yields rent; clothing and lodging are next great wants.read · scan
• p. 165Clothing materials are worthless when superabundant and gain value, yielding rent, once cultivation and foreign commerce create demand.read · scan
• p. 166Lodging materials like stone and timber yield rent only where demand and transport exist; otherwise worthless to the landlord.read · scan
• p. 167Population depends on food; surplus food is exchanged for the rich's endless desires for lodging, dress and furniture.read · scan
• p. 168–169Coal-mine rent depends on fertility and situation; other produce affords rent only when price exceeds labour and ordinary profit.read · scan
• p. 169Wood's price and rent rise as agriculture advances and forests are cleared, making timber planting as profitable as corn or pasture.read · scan
• p. 170–171Coal prices are capped by wood's cost and floored by stock plus ordinary profit; the most fertile mine regulates neighbours' prices.read · scan
• p. 171Rent is a smaller and less certain share of coal-mine produce than of land; metals sell worldwide, so situation matters less.read · scan
• p. 179–180Value of silver relative to corn depends on demand and supply in progress of improvement; rude produce classified by industry's power to multiply it.read · scan
• p. 181Prices of rare, unmultipliable goods like game and birds rise without limit as wealth and luxury grow; Roman prices explained.read · scan
• p. 181Ancient Roman extravagant prices reflect real value of silver and the labour and subsistence at Romans' disposal beyond their needs.read · scan
• p. 183Price of cattle and similar produce rises with improvement until as profitable as corn, then cannot rise further as land shifts to pasture.read · scan
• p. 184Low cattle prices prevent farmers from stocking and manuring, so most land lies waste; cultivation depends on profitable cattle.read · scan
• p. 184Poverty of tenants and slow accumulation of stock hinder improvement; stock and land improvement must advance together.read · scan
• p. 184–186Rising cattle prices are held the greatest commercial gain to Scotland, raising estate values and improving the low country; colonial abundance makes cattle cheap.read · scan
• p. 186–188Prices of rude produce rise with wealth and luxury; venison costs more than a deer park repays.read · scan
• p. 188Poultry begins as a costless save-all, cheap in ill-cultivated lands, and rises in price with wealth and luxury until raising it pays.read · scan
• p. 188–189Improvements such as clover and turnips lower meat prices; hogs kept as save-all become dearer once food must be raised for them.read · scan
• p. 189Price of hogs and poultry rose with the decline of cottagers, who kept them at little cost; prices must reach cost of cultivation.read · scan
• p. 190Dairy is a save-all whose price rises with demand and improvement, paying for more labour, care and cleanliness and better quality.read · scan
• p. 190–192Land is fully improved only when produce prices cover rent, labour and profit; gain is the end of improvement.read · scan
• p. 192–193Rise in money price of rude produce reflects a rise in real price, in labour and subsistence commanded, not silver's degradation.read · scan
• p. 193Wool and hides sell in distant markets even in rude countries, so their price is a larger share of the beast's value there.read · scan
• p. 194Carcase price rises with a country's population and improvement more than wool and hide, whose market is the whole commercial world.read · scan
• p. 195English wool's real price fell by half since Edward III, the effect of export prohibitions and import permissions rather than the natural course.read · scan
• p. 196Fifteenth-century hide prices are compared in silver and corn to show that real price is somewhat lower now than then.read · scan
• p. 196–197Smith analyzes the price of raw hides and cattle, and how trade duties and export prohibitions affect prices in improved and barbarous countries.read · scan
• p. 198Smith shows how regulations lowering wool and hide prices affect the price of meat, and landlords' and farmers' rent and profit, in improved versus unimproved countries.read · scan
• p. 198–199Wool price fell after the union with Scotland, offset by rising meat prices; the efficacy of industry in multiplying rude produce is limited and uncertain.read · scan
• p. 199–200The real price of fish rises with improvement, as growing markets require disproportionately more labour; mineral output is uncertain.read · scan
• p. 203–204Prices of manufactures have fallen greatly over the centuries, with cloth reduced less, as the materials' price rose.read · scan
• p. 204–205Comparing the 1487 sumptuary price of fine cloth in wheat shows its real price has fallen greatly, as measured by labour and subsistence commanded.read · scan
• p. 205Real prices of clothing and hose for the poor in Edward IV's time, measured in wheat, were much higher than now.read · scan
• p. 206Cloth's real price was higher in ancient times because it cost more labour to produce.read · scan
• p. 206–207Household by-employment manufacture came cheaper than the workman's sole livelihood; improvement in society tends to raise the landlord's real rent and wealth.read · scan
• p. 207–208Improvement and rising rude produce prices raise landlord's rent and share; falling manufacture prices and growing society wealth also raise real rent, while decline lowers it.read · scan
• p. 208–209Annual produce divides into rent, wages and profit, forming revenue of three orders of society; landlords' interest tied to society's.read · scan
• p. 379Money prices of labour, materials and manufactures all follow corn's price, so the bounty's rise leaves farmers and landlords no better off; silver's fall is trivial.read · scan

10f.Price control and famine

See also: Government 6e

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9

• p. 95–97Rising corn prices provoke crowds; Cicero's house and compensation for it are at issue.read · scan

Plutarch, CoriolanusVol. 12

• p. 157Famine and lack of money; the wealthy falsely accused of contriving the shortage.read · scan
• p. 159–160Gift corn from Syracuse raises the question of free distribution to the hungry.read · scan
• p. 165He is accused over corn prices and over dividing the booty instead of putting it in the public treasury.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

• p. 244Markets serve trade in provisions but benefit sellers more than buyers, with assizes and quality unregulated, causing dearth in plenty.read · scan
• p. 244Corn dealers and bodgers buy up grain above market price, denying the poor artificer bread; market abuses and profiteering condemned.read · scan
• p. 245Rich men use forged licences and proxies to buy up the poor man's grain and corner the market.read · scan
• p. 245–247Great occupiers hoard and time sales of corn to raise prices; greed for gain leaves the poor hungry.read · scan
• p. 247–248Farmers conceal grain and purveyors and buttermen multiply, inflating prices; too many dealers outbidding each other raises costs.read · scan
• p. 249Covetousness and greed of dealers fleece the poor tenants.read · scan
• p. 249Proposes ordering markets and viewing barns to stop hoarding and bring down grain prices.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

• p. 144Wage-fixing is discussed as an economic policy that has fallen into disuse.read · scan
• p. 145–146Price regulation such as the assize of bread is inferior to competition; wages and profit keep proportion despite society's rise or decline.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

• p. 79–81The richest and most avaricious grain-holders are blamed for the famine and marked for hanging.read · scan
• p. 194–195Scarcity of bread is blamed on monopolists, and the crowd helps itself to food.read · scan
• p. 196Bad harvest, war, heavy taxes and army provisions cause scarcity and a rise of prices in the Milanese.read · scan
• p. 196Price controls and threats cannot create grain; the evil continues, showing the futility of fixing prices against scarcity.read · scan
• p. 197–198Ferrer fixes bread's price far below the corn cost, wrongly thinking a decree suffices; bakers are forced to sell at a loss.read · scan
• p. 198–199Bread price controls and bakers' interests set economic background to the popular anger over scarcity.read · scan
• p. 206Renzo reflects that destroying bake-houses cannot supply bread.read · scan
• p. 216–217Ferrer is popular for fixing bread at a low price.read · scan
• p. 219He promises bread at a low price.read · scan
• p. 236–237Fixed moderate price and rationing of bread to prevent hoarding and high prices that starve the poor.read · scan
• p. 265–266Talk of hidden corn and a merchant's shop concerns the bread shortage and trade.read · scan
• p. 267The merchant worries for his shop and defends the superintendent of provisions against the rioters' plundering.read · scan
• p. 268–269Bread price fixed at eight ounces a penny; flour wasted by riot.read · scan
• p. 450Artificially cheap bread prices give brief abundance; hoarding and consumption make it unsustainable, showing the economics of price-fixing in famine.read · scan
• p. 451Price maxima on rice and grain create disproportion between cost and price, burdening the city's finances.read · scan
• p. 452Fixed bread prices draw crowds to Milan; each measure necessitates another, showing price control's inevitable consequences in famine.read · scan
• p. 453Price-fixing, restricted commerce and poverty prevented grain imports; the arbitrary tariff wasted the scarce supply.read · scan

‹ 9 · Outline · 11 ›