抄録
The purpose of this article is to reinterpret Rich-ard Cantillonʼs concept of “profit” described in his Essai sur la nature du commerce en général (1755）. It examines the conceptual relation between profit and Cantillonʼs two notions “intrin-sic value” and “entrepreneur.”
By examining Prendergastʼs （1991） two possible interpretations of the relation of profit with the intrinsic value of a commodity and Brewerʼs （1992） discussion of entrepreneursʼ credit-worthiness, it is shown that Cantillonʼs profit interpreted by Prendergast is constructed of certain and uncertain parts. Certain part of the profit accruing to a commodity producer is the difference between the producerʼs labor value and subsistence level, and uncertain part, which characterizes the producer as an entrepreneur, is the balance between the sales price and the in-trinsic value of a commodity. This construction enables us to interpret Cantillonʼs profit with reference to entrepre-neursʼ labor value and to provide restrictive defi-nitions of Cantillonʼs notions of intrinsic value and entrepreneur.
These restrictive definitions, which take into consideration the idea of long-run equilibrium price, indicate that Cantillonʼs notions of intrin-sic value and entrepreneur differ from Adam Smithʼs versions of “natural price” and “employ-er,” respectively. It is shown that the state where-in the price of each commodity equalizes with its intrinsic value and the existence of an entre-preneur receiving uncertain profit are conceptu-ally incompatible in economies in Cantillonʼs ar-gument.
Our interpretations represent an explanation for the conceptual change of profit from Cantil-lon to Smith.
JEL classification numbers: B11, B31.
