Monnaie et reproduction du capital : un modèle pour aider un "génie supérieur" ricardien

The way in which Ricardo deals with the gravitation of market prices around natural prices involves some difficulties which, from our point of view, invalidate his reasoning. However, some propositions which can be found in his monetary writings can help to avoid those difficulties. We present a model dealing with the working of an economy in which the commodities which are produced can only be bought with money. We prove that the dynamical evolution of such a society depends on the distribution of money between capitalists and on their prices expectations. Thus, if a "superior genius had the arrangement of the capital of the country under his control", as he alludes to in a letter to his friend Malthus, the consequences of such an intervention would be different from those assumed by Ricardo.