Consider the introduction of new, advanced machinery into a capitalist
economy. This will raise productivity and be good for the population
as a whole. It will displace workers, at least temporarily, who
were previously making the product of the machine with handicraft production
or now obsolete machines with lower productivity.
But the production of the machines requires workers too. So, ignoring
short-run frictions, will the workers not remain as well off?
David Ricardo believed something like this at one point in his life.
But he had come to the opposite conclusion when he revised his Principles
for the third edition. And he was forthright in saying so.
Some of the displaced workers will be more or less permanently unemployed.
By the way, this was not a matter of coming to agree with Malthus
on a point about effectual demand.
Ricardo's change of mind was not some abstract academic view. This was
a time in England shortly after the Luddites were at their peak. The Luddites
had been rioting and destroying new machinery being introduced by
industrialists. Ricardo's friend, J. R. McCulloch writes to Ricardo, and he
immediately saw the potential of these changes
(Ricardo, Works, volume 8, pp. 381-386):
Edinburgh 5 June 1821
My dear Sir
I have to apologise for being so long in returning you my best thanks for the valuable
present of the third Edition of your great work - I congratulate you on its success - It is
the best proof that can be given of the growing attention now paid to this important science;
and it must have a powerful influence in furthering the dissemination of sound principles -
At the same time I must say (and I say it with that regret which I ever must feel in
differing widely from one to whom I shall always be proud to look up as to my master) that
in my humble opinion the Chapter on Machinery in this Edition is a very material deduction from the value of the work...
...Excess of candour has in this instance occasioned your doing a very serious injury to your
favourite science - It was certainly proper that you should have renounced your previous opinions
the moment you were satisfied of their fallacy; but this may be done in various ways, and I do not
think it was at all necessary for you to make a formal recantation - our object never has been
and never can be any other than to endeavour to promote the real interests of the science...
However the manner in which you have published your change of opinion is of comparatively little consequence - It
is what I consider the extreme erroneousness of the principles to which you have incautiously lent the sanction
of your name that has excited my principal regret - It is impossible to fritter away your argument by
fencing it about with conditions - If it is good for any thing at all it is conclusive against all
employment of machinery - It is not with greater or less gross or net produce that we
have the smallest concern in considering this question; but simply whether does machinery produce
commodities cheaper or not? If it does not produce them cheaper it will not be erected, and if
it does produce them cheaper its erection must be profitable to every class of persons - The
example which you have given does not, as far as I can perceive, by any means warrant a single
one of the extraordinary conclusions you have drawn from it - You have not said whether
the machine worth £7,500 is to last one, ten, or one hundred years -
...Your argument is to be sure hypothetical; but the hypothesis will be thrown aside, and all
those who raise a yell against the extension of machinery, and ascribe to it that misery which
is a mere necessary consequence of the oppressiveness of taxation, and of the restraints on
commerce will fortify themselves by your authority! If your reasoning and that of
Mr. Malthus be well founded, the laws against the Luddites are a disgrace to the Statute book -
Let me beg of you to reconsider this subject - A heresy on a mere doctrinal point
is of no moment; but really I could not recommend to any of my friends to bestow the
least attention on the study of this science, if I was satisfied that it remained yet
to be settled whether the reducing of the price of commodities was advantageous or not - Truly
if we are not got this length, our disputes about profits and our other remote conclusions
ought to afford infinite amusement to the scoffers - But, I, at least, am not in this
quandary - I will take my stand with the Mr. Burke of the American war not with
the Mr. Burke of the French revolution - with the Mr. Ricardo of the first not of the third edition - Were
there nothing else to allege on the subject I should be perfectly satisfied with what I consider
the inherent fallacy involved in all the arguments which have been advanced against machinery...
Were I not aware that in all your speculations you are actuated solely by a desire to
contribute to the improvement of the science, I should not have presumed to address
to you this hasty and ill-digested letter - But I am satisfied that opinions dictated
equally by a regard to the interests of the science, and coming from one who is not
the least sincere of your admirers, though they may seem erroneous, will claim and
meet with your attentive perusal - I am with the greatest regard and esteem
ever faithfully yours
J. R. McCulloch
Those are extracts from a long letter. I have left out many details of the argument.
Ricardo's friendship with Malthus is another testament to his personality.
They continually argued that the other was wrong on political economy.
Ricardo would lend out his notes on one of Malthus' books (Works, volume 2) to his friends. He did not
try to publish them, for they did not make much sense without the text of Malthus'
Principles of Political Economy.
Malthus explained to Ricardo that he was mistaken, both in person and through
a long interchange of letters. It was Malthus' insistence that even in agriculture,
no product and its capital advances consist of the same mixture of commodities
that induced Ricardo, as I understand it, to take up the labor theory of value.
Anyways, despite these persistent disagreements, Ricardo continued as a life-long
friend of Malthus. I do not think I have that temperament.
Edit: Reference as suggested in coments:
- Paul A. Samuelson. 1989. Ricardo was right! Scandinavian Journal of Economics 91(1): 47-62.