Gold And Silver Like Other Commodities

From The High Price of Bullion, a Proof of the Depreciation of Bank Notes (1810), Ricardo's early and influential pamphlet on monetary theory. Writing during the Napoleonic Wars, when Britain had suspended convertibility of the pound, Ricardo argued that gold had an intrinsic value derived from labor costs of production, and that the paper pound had depreciated because the Bank of England had issued too many notes. The pamphlet helped shape the Bullion Committee report of 1810.