Smith and Ricardo 209these two countries should trade. England would get wine worth
120 men through the efforts of 100 men producing cloth and
Portugal would get cloth worth 90 of her men through efforts of
80 men producing wine. This theory called for a philosophy of
free trade which he felt would alleviate the problems caused by
the corn laws and all nations could specialize in producing goods
that they could produce efficiently.
Finally, Ricardo dealt with taxation. Simply stated he felt that
all taxation inhibited progress. He served for a time in Parlia
ment, and during his entire tenure he never voted for a tax
increase.
Ricardo’s view of man and his economic future was pessimis
tic. He believed that mankind was extremely greedy and com
petitive and therefore was doomed to live at subsistence level.
He feared the landlord ’ s increase in power would squeeze out the
capitalist and continue to take advantage of the laborers. Thus,
the two productive forces in society were at the mercy of the
landlord, the sole beneficiary of unproductive labor. He sug
gests, but is not too optimistic, that men learn to restrain their
natural bent towards insatiability. Free trade at home and free
trade internationally holds out some hope, but the iron law of
wages dominates his thinking and contributes greatly to his
gloomy outlook.