Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T10:00:10.664Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE LINK BETWEEN CAPITAL ACCUMULATION AND INCREASING WAGES IN AN UPDATED VERSION OF SMITH’S THEORY OF POPULATION

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2020

Ferdinando Meacci
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to focus, within Adam Smith’s system of thought, on the various aspects of the twofold link between the accumulation of capital and the demand for labor, on the one hand, and between an increasing population and increasing wages, on the other. This link is examined, first, in the light of the relationship between the principles of self-interest and competition; and, second, in support of the possibility that the long-run supply of labor may fall short of the long-run demand for it. The paper’s main argument is that this possibility is peacefully implemented in advancing economies by the “uniform, constant, and uninterrupted effort of every man to better his condition,” which lies behind a continuous process of capital accumulation and technical progress along with the birth control techniques so widely used in our times.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the History of Economic Thought , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , September 2020 , pp. 385 - 400
Copyright
© The History of Economics Society 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova, Italy. A different version of this paper was presented under a different title at the Annual Meeting of the International Adam Smith Society, Viña del Mar, Chile, January 12–13, 2018. I wish to thank the discussants and colleagues who have contributed to a number of subsequent modifications of my earlier presentation. I wish to thank in particular the referees of this journal for their useful criticisms and comments, which have enabled me to add some further improvements to my previous draft.

References

REFERENCES

Aspromourgos, Tony. 2009. The Science of Wealth: Adam Smith and the Framing of Political Economy. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Aspromourgos, Tony. 2010. “‘Universal Opulence’: Adam Smith on Technical Progress and Real Wages.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 17 (5): 1169–1182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bee, Michelle. Forthcoming. “The Pleasure of Exchange: Adam Smith’s Third Kind of Self-Love.” Journal of the History of Economic Thought. Preprint at SocArXiv, https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv.Google Scholar
Berry, Christopher J., Paganelli, Maria P., and Smith, Craig, eds. 2013. The Oxford Handbook of Adam Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaug, Mark. 1985. Economic Theory in Retrospect. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brewer, Anthony. 2010. The Making of the Classical Theory of Economic Growth. London and New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannan, Edwin A. [1917] 1967. A History of the Theories of Production and Distribution from 1776 to 1848. New York: A. M. Kelly.Google Scholar
Cantillon, Richard. [1755] 1964. Essai sur la Nature du Commerce en Général. Edited by Higgs, H.. New York: A. M. Kelly.Google Scholar
Cunningham Wood, John, ed. 1984. Adam Smith: Critical Assessments. Four volumes. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Cunningham Wood, John, ed. 1986. Thomas Robert Malthus: Critical Assessments. Four volumes. London: Croom Helm.Google Scholar
Eatwell, John, Milgate, Murray, and Newman, Peter, eds. 1989. The Invisible Hand. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eltis, Walter A. 1984. The Classical Theory of Economic Growth. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evensky, Jerry. 2005. Adam Smith’s Moral Philosophy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleischacker, Samuel. 2004. On Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations: A Philosophical Companion. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Geoffrey. 1980. “Economic Growth and the Poor in Malthus’ Essay on Population.” History of Political Economy 12 (1): 83–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haakonssen, Knud, ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to Adam Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawtrey, Ralph G. 1952. Capital and Employment. London: Longmans, Green and Co.Google Scholar
Heath, Eugene. 2013. “Adam Smith and Self-Interest.” In Berry, C. J., Paganelli, M. P., and Smith, C., eds. The Oxford Handbook of Adam Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 241–264.Google Scholar
Hollander, Samuel. 1973. The Economics of Adam Smith. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollander, Samuel. 1977. “Adam Smith and the Self-Interest Axiom.” Journal of Law and Economics 20 (1): 133–152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollander, Samuel. 1997. The Economics of Thomas Robert Malthus. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollander, Samuel. 2019. “Ricardo on Machinery.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 33 (2): 229–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kurz, Heinz D. 2010. “Technical Progress, Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution in Classical Economics: Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 17 (5): 1183–1222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Arthur. 1954. “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour.” The Manchester School 22 (2): 139–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Arthur. 1958. “Unlimited Labour: Further Notes.” The Manchester School 26 (1): 1–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malthus, Thomas R. [1826] 1986. An Essay on the Principle of Population. Sixth edition. In Wigley, E. A. and Souden, D., eds., The Works of Thomas Robert Malthus. Volume 2. London: William Pickering.Google Scholar
Malthus, Thomas R.. [1836] 1986. Principles of Political Economy. In Wigley, E. A. and Souden, D., eds., The Works of Thomas Robert Malthus. Volumes 5–6. London: William Pickering.Google Scholar
Meacci, Ferdinando. 2006. “The Competition-of-Capitals Doctrine and the Wage-Profit Relationship.” In Salvadori, N., ed., Economic Growth and Distribution: On the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 58–74.Google Scholar
Meacci, Ferdinando. 2012. “On Adam Smith’s Ambiguities on Value and Wealth.” History of Political Economy 44 (4): 663–689.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meacci, Ferdinando. 2017. “On Adam Smith’s ‘Original Error Respecting Value.’” Adam Smith Review 10: 286–301.Google Scholar
Meacci, Ferdinando, and Ferlito, Carmelo. 2018. “The Classical Roots of the Austrian Theory of Capital and Entrepreneurship.” The Review of Austrian Economics 31: 315–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montes, Leonidas. 2004. Adam Smith in Context. A Critical Reassessment of Some Central Components of His Thought. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Montes, Leonidas, and Schliesser, Erich, eds. 2006. New Voices on Adam Smith. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Donnell, Rory. 1990. Adam Smith’s Theory of Value and Distribution: A Reappraisal. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Driscoll, Gerald P., ed. 1979. Adam Smith and Modern Political Economy: Bicentennial Essays on The Wealth of Nations. Ames: The Iowa State University Press.Google Scholar
Otteson, James R. 2002. Adam Smith’s Marketplace of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paganelli, Maria P. 2008. “The Adam Smith Problem in Reverse: Self-Interest in The Wealth of Nations and The Theory of Moral Sentiments.” History of Political Economy 40 (2): 365–382.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peach, Terry. 2010. “Measuring the ‘Happiness of Nations’: The Conundrum of Adam Smith’s ‘Real Measure of Exchangeable Value.’” History of Political Economy 42 (3): 403–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pullen, John. 2019. “Malthus on the Desire of Bettering Our Condition and the Vis Medicatrix Reipublicae.” History of Political Economy 51 (4): 731–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raphael, David D., and Macfie, Alexander L.. 1976. “Introduction.” In Smith, Adam, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Edited by Raphael, D. D. and Macfie, A. L.. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, pp. 1–52.Google Scholar
Ricardo, David. [1821] 1951. On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. In Sraffa, P., ed., The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo. Volume I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Nathan. 1960. “Some Institutional Aspects of the Wealth of Nations.” Journal of Political Economy 18 (6): 557–570.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Nathan. 1975. “Adam Smith on Profits. Paradox Lost and Regained.” In Skinner, A. S. and Wilson, T., eds., Essays on Adam Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 377–389.Google Scholar
Rothschild, Emma. 2001. Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet and the Enlightenment. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Samuels, Warren J. 2011. Erasing the Invisible Hand. Essays on an Elusive and Misused Concept in Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Samuelson, Paul A. 1977. “A Modern Theorist’s Vindication of Adam Smith.” American Economic Review 67 (1): 42–49.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1954. History of Economic Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sen, Amartya K. 2011. “Uses and Abuses of Adam Smith.” History of Political Economy 43 (2): 257–271.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinha, Ajit. 2010. “In Defence of Adam Smith’s Theory of Value.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 17 (1): 29–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, Andrew S., ed. 1996. A System of Social Science: Papers Relating to Adam Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, Andrew S., and Wilson, Thomas, eds. 1975. Essays on Adam Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. [1759] 1976. The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Edited by Raphael, D. D. and Macfie, A. L.. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. [1776] 1976. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Edited by Campbell, R. H. and Skinner, A. S.. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.Google Scholar
Smith, Adam. [1776] 1978. Lectures on Jurisprudence. Edited by Meek, R. L., Raphael, D. D., and Stein, P. G.. Indianapolis: Liberty Classics.Google Scholar
Spengler, Joseph J. 1976. “Adam Smith on Population Growth and Economic Development.” Population and Development Review 2 (2): 167–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sraffa, Piero, ed. 1951–1973. The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo. Eleven volumes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Stigler, George J. 1971. “Smith’s Travels on the Ship of State.” History of Political Economy 3 (2): 265–277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stigler, George J. 1976. “The Successes and Failures of Professor Smith.” Journal of Political Economy 84 (6): 1199–1213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strulik, Holger, and Weisdorf, Jacob. 2008. “Population, Food, and Knowledge: A Simple Unified Growth Theory.” Journal of Economic Growth 13 (3): 195–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterman, Anthony M. C. 2012. “Adam Smith and Malthus on High Wages.” The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought 19 (3): 409–429.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wicksell, Knut. [1934] 1967. Lectures on Political Economy. Volume I. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wilson, Thomas. 1976. “Sympathy and Self-Interest.” In Wilson, T. and Skinner, A. S., eds., The Market and the State. Essays in Honour of Adam Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 73–99, and comments, pp. 99–112.Google Scholar
Wilson, Thomas, and Skinner, Andrew S., eds. 1976. The Market and the State. Essays in Honour of Adam Smith. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Wrigley, Edward A. 1988. “The Limits to Growth: Malthus and the Classical Economists.” Population and Development Review 14 (suppl.): 30–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, Allyn A. 1928. “Increasing Returns and Economic Progress.” Economic Journal 38: 527–542.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, Jeffrey T., ed. 2009. Elgar Companion to Adam Smith. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.Google Scholar