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Say, Malthus and Ricardo: Say’s Law and Gluts
In 1803, Jean-Baptiste Say examined, in his book, the evolution of trade
between Great Britain and Brazil. He realized that the only way for Brazil to
buy British goods was to supply Brazilian goods to Britain in order to obtain
the sterling necessary to demand English goods. Say extended this to a
single economy in claiming that a demand for a particular set of goods can
only be expressed by an equivalent supply of another set. An easier example
can make this clearer: how does a shoemaker get hats? He can either make
them himself (which he really has no skill or knowledge to do at low cost) or
he can simply make more shoes and exchange them for hats. Supply,
therefore, "creates" demand.
Almost all of Classical and most Neoclassical theory, is based, to a lesser or
greater degree, on this simple, even tautological, assertion. In a simple shoehat world, at any one time, three possible situations may arise: (1) there may
be a sufficient amount of shoes and hats to satisfy all demand; (2) there may
be too many shoes offered on the market - implying too great a demand for
hats; and (3) there may be too many hats and not enough shoes. Situations
(2) and (3) are situations when markets have not made precise the
allocations. However, the essence of Say's Law is that there can never be too
much of both shoes and hats. A shoemaker would not make more shoes if he
did not desire more hats. Therefore, Say's Law concludes, general gluts
cannot exist.
Now, the Classical economists were not so blind that they did not see great
amounts of unemployment, or that they thought markets always worked. But
they concluded that these were due to excess supplies and demands of
particular commodities and not excess supplies (or gluts) of commodities as a
whole. As Ricardo notes, "Mistakes can be made, and commodities not suited
to demand may be produced - of these there may be a glut" (Ricardo, 1820:
160) and that "it is at all times the bad adaptations of the commodities
produced to the wants of mankind which is the specific evil, and not the
abundance of commodities. Demand is only limited by the will and power to
purchase." (Ricardo, 1820: 161). John Stuart Mill concurs by noting that in
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these situations, "production is not excessive, but merely ill-assorted" (Mill,
1848: 380).
Ricardo (1817: Ch.21) and Mill (1848: Ch.14) extended this proposition to
savings and investment. If one produces more than one consumes, then the
surplus is saved and, by definition of terms, invested. No one would produce
in excess of consumption needs if one does not have a desire to either
exchange it or invest it. Supply, therefore, is demand. This virtually all the
Classical economists held to be an irrefutable truth.
All but, of course, Thomas Malthus (1820, 1827) and also the French
economist, J.C.L.Simonde de Sismondi (1819). Malthus and de Sismondi
believed general gluts could exist and they gave their reasoning as follows.
Income is distributed between workers, entrepreneurs and land-owners
receiving wage income, profit and land rents. Let us assume the Classical
proposition that all wages are consumed and all profits invested but make no
stipulation as to what happens to the rents of land-owners. Presumably,
landowners will receive a portion of income, but they may choose to consume
it or not to consume it.
Let us assume a Ricardian "corn" world, i.e. where only corn is produced and
everyone is paid in corn and the only capital is corn (it goes into its own
production as seed). Thus: Y = wL + (1+r)M + tT where w is the wage, L labor
employed, r is the profit rate, M is capital employed, t the land rent and T the
land employed. Thus, wL is the share of output which goes to workers, (1+r)M
is the share of output which goes to capitalists and tT the share of output
going to the landowner. Let us then define net output, X = Y - M, i.e. total
output of corn minus the corn needed as capital implement. Thus, net output
can be regarded as that output that is brought to "market", i.e. supplied. Then:
X = wL + rM + tT
so that we obtain wL as the proportion of net output going to labor, rM the
proportion going to capitalists and tT the proportion going to landowners.
Let us now assume that tT = 0, i.e. no landowners exist or, if they do, they
receive no rent. Then total net output is distributed so:
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X = wL + rM
However, since entrepreneurs do not consume, then aggregate demand is
composed entirely of workers' demand. Now, as long as profits are positive,
then workers' income is less than net output, i.e. wL
However, this argument is unreasonable in several respects. First and
foremost, as long as profit is positive, the demand for consumer goods is
always, by definition, less than net output. Besides, we have entirely ignored
what savings, the income of capitalists resolves into. If rM is invested, then
that investment is essentially a demand for capital goods. Therefore, we must
really write the equations for both consumer and capital goods sectors
(multiplied by their respective prices since we are no longer in a one-good
world):
pcXc = wLc + rpkMc
pkXk = wLk + rpkMk
such that we have net output for consumer (Xc) and capital (Xk) goods
respectively. The other terms follow logically (Lc and Lk are the labor
employed by the consumer and capital goods industries respectively, M c and
Mk the capital employed and pc and pk are the prices for consumer and capital
goods). To reduce the plethora of subscripts, we can normalize for pc, the
price of the consumer good, so that pc = 1, so p = pk/pc is the price of the
capital good in terms of the consumer good. Thus we get:
Xc = wLc + rpMc
pXk = wLk + rpMk
Now, rp(Mc + Mk) constitutes the total income by capitalists in the consumer
goods and capital goods sectors; assuming capitalists save all their income,
then it is also equal to total saving and, by extension, total investment
demand. pXk, of course, is the supply of capital goods. Thus, for investment
demand (savings) to be equal to the supply of capital goods, then:
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rp(Mc + Mk) = pXk
or simply, savings is equal to investment. Rewritten:
rp(Mc + Mk) = wLk + rpMk
so:
rpMc = wLk
substituting into the consumer goods equation:
Xc = wLc + wLk = w(Lc + Lk)
i.e. total demand for consumer goods, which is derived from wage income in
both sectors w(Lc + Lk) , will equal total supply of consumer goods, Xc. Thus,
there is no general glut. This conforms to the simplest form of Say's Law, as
stated by Ricardo (1817) and Mill (1848).
How might throwing landowners into the picture affect this? Well, rewriting:
Xc = wLc + rpMc+ tTc
pXk = wLk + rpMk + tTk
Let us suppose, again, that rp(Mc + Mk) represents total investment demand.
Then, the savings-investment identity requires that:
rp(Mc + Mk) = wLk + rpMk + tTk
or:
rpMc = wLk + tTk
so, plugging back in the consumer goods sector:
Xc = wLc + wLk + tTc + tTk
= w(Lc + Lk) + t(Tc + Tk)
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total worker income w(Lc + Lk), and landowner income t(Tc + Tk) will exhaust
the output of consumer goods. This is where Thomas Malthus's (1820, 1827)
argument attempts to part way. What he argued is that if a part of landowners'
total income t(Tc + Tk) is not consumed, then total consumption will not be
enough to fulfill the total supply of consumer goods. In other words, if only a
portion q of landowner income is consumed, so that qt(Tc + Tk) is total
landowner consumption then:
Xc > w(Lc + Lk) + qt(Tc + Tk)
In other words, there will be a general glut (excess supply of consumer goods)
even though the investment-savings identity still holds.
This may seem reasonable until we ask whither the unconsumed portions of
rent income? Presumably saved - and hence, invested (Malthus did not
challenge the S = I identity). If q of rent income goes for the consumption,
then (1-q) of it is saved. Conseqently, landlord savings must be (1-q)t(Tc + Tk)
and total economy-saving becomes rp(Mc + Mk) + (1-q)t(Tc + Tk) and the
savings-investment identity is:
rp(Mc + Mk) + (1-q)t(Tc + Tk) = wLk + rpMk + tTk
implying that:
rpMc = wLk + tTk - (1-q)t(Tc + Tk)
Plugging this back into the consumer goods equation:
Xc = wLc + wLk + tTk - (1-q)t(Tc + Tk) + tTc
or:
Xc = w(Lc + Lk) + qt(Tc + Tk)
since qt(Tc + Tk) is defined as landlord consumption, then this condition states
that total consumption demand will be equal to total supply of consumer
goods. Thus, S = I and there is no excess supply of goods. There is no
general glut, Say's Law is reinstated. The Malthus-Sismondi arguments, then,
seem to fail to hold.
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However, things might change if we add a dynamic twist to this simplistic
model. Ricardo erroneously transformed all of Malthus's and Sismondi's
arguments, as we just have, into long-run comparative statics when they
were, in fact, arguing in short-run dynamic terms.
Malthus and Sismondi recognized that investment increases output capacity.
Namely, investment in any period increases output capacity in that period
which increases the supply of consumer goods by itself. Let us suppose, then,
that Xc is consumer good output at period t and Xc + dXc is consumer good
output a period ahead. Now, assuming a Robertsonian lag, so consumption at
period t+1 is derived from t period's wage and rent income which are in turn
derived from that period's output by the standard Ricardian equality X c = w(Lc
+ Lk) + qt(Tc + Tk). However, this result obtains because we assumed that
investment occurred at time period t. Therefore, capacity has increased and
period t+1 output is Xc + dXc so that obviously:
Xc + dXc > w(Lc + Lk) + qt(Tc + Tk)
the present supply of consumer goods exceeds the demand for consumption
(which is derived from last period's income). This is the general glut Malthus
was talking about. In this situation, unless consumption increases
exogenously in period t+1 to meet the extra output, then either prices for
consumer goods will fall or the glut will persist (since next period t+2 demand
is based on t+1 income).
If nothing else changes, then the glut persists. In this case, entrepreneurs will
have little choice but to reduce investment. However, reducing investment
demand at period t+1 will reduce labor incomes and rent incomes in the
capital goods sector, so wLk and tTk fall. However, this implies that total
consumption will fall further so that, at time period t+2, the difference will be
the same or even more pronounced. Consumption can lag persistently behind
investment. Thus we get secular stagnation.
One way out of this would be to increase consumption exogenously. Malthus
argued for q to be jacked up at time t+1 so that landlords consume more. This
would lower investment immediately since landlord savings would be
depleted. This would, admittedly, lower worker consumption in the capital
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goods sector - but it would be replaced by higher landlord consumption. Thus,
consumption could be brought up to meet output, mopping up dXc, while, at
the same, the growth of capacity is reduced by lower savings. The conclusion
Malthus' reached, then, is that as a policy, q should be increased concurrently
to increases in output capacity so that the possibility of a glut be preempted.
With landlords increasing their consumption autonomously as output
increases, then everything will be reigned in. Hence Malthus's benevolence
towards the landlord class. By pandering to landlords, he argued, they might
just be induced to provide the extra consumption to avert secular stagnation.
Ricardo (1820) translated this argument in long-run comparative statics terms
- and showed, indeed, that the argument is incorrect as a long run argument.
If the above inequality is true in the long run, then payments to factors in the
consumer goods sector exceeds demand for consumer goods:
wLc + rpMc + tTc > w(Lc + Lk) + qt(Tc + Tk)
so:
rpMc + tTc > wLk + qtTc + qtTk
But since, by definition S = I, so rpMc = wLk + tTk - (1-q)t(Tc + Tk), then this
inequality must be rewritten:
wLk + tTk - (1-q)t(Tc + Tk) + tTc > wLk + qtTc + qtTk
or simply:
qt(Tc + Tk) > qt(Tc + Tk)
which is a contradiction. Now, Malthus (1820: p.38) believed savings equals
investment at all times, then was he wrong? Not really. After all, as we know,
in the short run, the term on the left is determined at time t+1 whereas that on
the right is determined at time t. Since output is higher at t+1 (from higher
capacity) then this is perfectly sensible.
But in the long run, the equality will have to emerge. The economic reasoning
for this, as explained by Ricardo, Mill and others, was that any overproduction
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in the consumer goods sector necessarily implies that profits of entrepreneurs
will have to fall (since they are not capable of selling). This will itself reduce
saving and thus lead to a fall in investment - reducing capacity accordingly.
Alternatively, the price of consumer goods would fall, therefore raising p
(recall that p = pk/pc) so that pXk rises and so too does wage and rent incomes
from payments in the capital goods sector. This will raise consumption
accordingly.
As we see, then, the Malthus-Sismondi story is only really applicable to shortrun disequilibria. In the long run, it simply cannot be true. Now, to defend his
position, Malthus might have well picked up one of Keynes's famous sayings
about the short-run lasting a generation or that "in the long run we are all
dead" - and Malthus did indeed come up with something similar:
"The question of a glut is exclusively whether it may be general,
as well as particular, and not whether it may be permanent as
well as temporary...[The] tendency, in the natural course of
things, to cure a glut or scarcity, is no more a proof that such
evils have never existed, than the tendency of the healing
processes of nature to cure some disorders without assistace
from man, is a proof that such disorders never existed."
(T.R. Malthus, 1827: p.62-3)
This indicates, then, that the protagonists were really speaking at cross
purposes. Ricardo was concerned almost exclusively with long run
possibilities of "secular stagnation" whereas Malthus seems to be more
concerned with the mere possibility of general gluts existing in the short-run
and, of course, that being a specific, practical problem that had to be dealt
with. Note that this implies that Malthus succeeded in breaking what Becker
and Baumol (1952) call "Say's Identity" (that there can be no general gluts at
any time) albeit not "Say's Equality" (that in the long run there can be no
general gluts). That this is true has been accepted by most economists.
However, what has not been decided was whether Malthus's argument was
really about short run frictions or rather that he was actually trying to prove,
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but failed to prove, the existence of long-run secular stagnation (as argued by
Patinkin (1956). Nevertheless, Malthus (1820) had some clear policy
propositions to cure the short-run problem. His most famous was that
landlords' consumption be increased to "fill" the glut in demand. Since they do
not produce anything, nothing is added to output but their very
unproductiveness is actually welcome since it maintains demand for all goods
while, at the same time, reduces investment. But should landlords hold back
consumption, then we have a general glut. Malthus's identification of the
landlord class as beneficial stands in stark contrast to Ricardo's (1817) view of
them as parasitical. Karl Marx's critique of Malthus started from a position of
agreement. Marx's idea of capitalist production, however, is characterized by
his concentration on the division of labor and his notion that goods are
produced for sale and not for consumption or exchange. In other words,
goods are produced simply for the intention of transforming output into money
to purchase other commodities. The possibility of a lack of effective demand,
therefore, is held only in the possibility that there might be a time lag between
the sale of a commodity (the acquisition of money) and the purchase of
another (its disbursement). This possibility, also originally crafted by Sismondi
(1819), endorsed the idea that the circularity of transactions was not always
complete and immediate. If money is held, Marx contended, even if for a little
while, there is a breakdown in the exchange process and a general glut can
occur. Marx, like Malthus, also accepted the savings-investment identity but
reached a different conclusion. Since investment is part of aggregate demand,
circulation does continue in time even if money is held. The drive for
accumulation, Marx concluded, will continue unhindered and thus a crisis of
the sort Malthus described can never happen and if it did, would be practically
inconsequential. What can happen, as Ricardo originally claimed, is that a
single good may be oversupplied causing a very temporary and small
adjustment of proportions which might seem as a general glut but in fact is
not. Thus, all the Classical economists, except for Malthus and Sismondi,
therefore were generally in agreement over the validity of Say's Law, at least
in the long run. They all also agree on the identity of savings and investment
as well as the separability of output and price theory.