Study Questions

• Discuss why mercantilist thinkers were not able to develop labour theory of value by considering their perception of economy and material conditions around them? Did they have proper analytical tools to discover this theory? 
• What is economic reproduction? How did Physiocrats analyse economic reproduction? 
• What did pioneers of scientific economics focus agriculture instead of industry? 
• Why did Physiocratic School assert that the wealth of nation was derived solely from the agricultural sector? 
• What are the similarities diffrences between Physiocrats and Adam Smith? 
• Why did Smith reject labor theory of value for commercial (capitalist) society? Discuss theoretical and intellectual reasons? 
• How do profit and wages change during the capital accumulation in Smith’s analysis? Discuss the meaning of these tendencies for Smith’s theory of society? 
• Why did Smith fall into a vicious cycle in his analysis of value? 
• What is natural price in Smith’s analysis? How is natural price determined? 
• Considering Smith’s and Ricardo’s analysis of growth and distribution, compare the reasons for declining rate of profit during the accumulation process in their analysis? What did they propose to solve this problem? 
• Discuss the possible intellectual and material reasons for Smith’s optimism and Ricardo’s pessimism about the effects of capital accumulation on working class. 
• Discuss the role of division of labor in Smith’s analysis? How do you interpret his analysis of division of labor in manufactures and division of labor in society? 
• It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages. In your opinion how does Smith reconcillate the argument above with his view of state founded on liberal principles? What is the secret of political and social order in commercial society dominated by selfish actions? 
• Discuss the following quotation? “When Smith examined capitalism from the vantage point of production, he was led to a class conflict view of the economy; when he examined it from the vantage point of exchange, he was led to a social harmony view”. 
• Thomas Robert Malthus formulated his conservative and pessimistic population theory against the arguments of radical reformers William Godwin and Condorcet. Summarize this debate by considering material conditions of that period and intelectual context of the arguments of both side? 
• What is “Poor Law”? 
• How does Ricardo explain the deviation prices from values? 
• What is differential rent”? Why did Ricardo formulate this theory? 
• Why did Ricardo criticise "The Corn Law" ? Discuss by considering his theory of rent. 
• In Ricardo's analysis how does “profit squeeze in agriculture” decrease general rate of profit ? 
• Summarize the arguments of Malthus and Ricardo on possibilitiy of general gluts?