Abstract

This paper revisits the question of demand in the works of Adam Smith and David Ricardo by adopting a novel approach: the joint examination of the concepts of “effectual demand” and the “extent of the market.” The discussion on “effectual demand” highlights its social nature and finds that in a multi-commodity framework, the vector of commodity supplies adapts to the vector of effectual demands. Subsequently, the “extent of the market” is seen to play a distinct role in determining economic growth as a demand-side determinant alongside the supply-side determinants of net saving and technological progress. The connections between the “extent of the market” and “effectual demand” are also explored in this paper. The findings point to a more important analytical role for demand in both Smith and Ricardo than has hitherto been highlighted.

摘要

本文采用一种新颖的方法重新审视了亚当·斯密和大卫·李嘉图著作中的需求问题：联合考察“有效需求”和“市场范围”的概念。对“有效需求”的讨论突出了其社会性，发现在多商品框架下，商品供给向量与有效需求向量相适应。随后，“市场的范围”被认为在决定经济增长方面发挥着独特的作用，作为需求侧的决定因素，与净储蓄和技术进步的供给侧决定因素一样。本文还探讨了“市场范围”和“有效需求”之间的联系。调查结果表明，史密斯和李嘉图对需求的分析作用比迄今为止所强调的更为重要。