ON PROFITS. 
6:3 
wages have risen, we mean, whether a definite 
portion of labour exchanges for a greater quan- 
tity of other things than before; but when we 
ask whether profits have risen, we do 70f mean 
whether a definite portion of some article 
called profits will exchange for a greater quan- 
tity of other things than before, but whether 
the gain of the capitalist bears a higher ratio 
to the capital employed. 
Mr. Ricardo appears to have considered 
wages, or the value of labour, and profits as 
equally shares or proportions of the commodity 
produced, and hence his doctrine, that as 
wages rise, or, in other words, the value of la- 
bour rises, profits must fall. « Whatever,” he 
says, ‘increases wages, necessarily reduces 
profits ;” and again, “ nothing can affect profits 
but a rise in wages.” 
It has been shown, however, in the last 
chapter, that wages, or the value of labour, 
and profits may both rise together, because the 
value of labour does not entirely depend on 
the proportion of the whole produce, which is 
given to the labourers in exchange for their