[140] l. c. p. 3-4.
[141] l. c., p. 4.
[142] Ricardo, l. c., p. 11-12.
[143] Ricardo, l. c., p. 14.
[144] l. c., p. 17.
[145] Ricardo, l. c., p. 74-75. “England, in consequence of a bad harvest, would come under the case of a country having been deprived of a part of its commodities, and, therefore, requiring a diminished amount of circulating medium. The currency which was before equal to her payments would now become super-abundant and relatively cheap, in proportion ... of her diminished production; the exportation of this sum, therefore, would restore the value of her currency to the value of the currencies of other countries.” His confusion of money and commodity, and of money and coin borders on the ludicrous in the following passage: “If we can suppose that after an unfavorable harvest, when England has occasion for an unusual importation of corn, another nation is possessed of a super-abundance of that article, but has no wants for any commodity whatever, it would unquestionably follow that such nation would not export its corn in exchange for commodities: but neither would it export corn for money, as that is a commodity which no nation ever wants absolutely, but relatively.” l. c., p. 75. Pushkin in his hero poem makes the father of his hero incapable of comprehending that commodities are money. But that money is a commodity, the Russians have understood from times of yore as is proven not only by the English corn imports in 1838-1842, but by the entire history of their commerce.
[146] Conf. Thomas Tooke, “History of Prices,” and James Wilson, “Capital, Currency and Banking.” (The latter work is a reprint of a series of articles which appeared in the London Economist in 1844, 1845 and 1847.)
[147] James Deacon Hume: “Letters on the Corn Laws.” London, 1834, p. 29-31. [Letter by H. B. T. on the Corn Laws and on the Rights of the Working Classes. Transl.]
[148] Thomas Tooke, “History of Prices,” etc. London, 1848, p. 110.
[149] Conf. W. Blake’s above quoted “Observations etc.”