EN
The article deals with analysis of Smith's and Ricardo's opinions on the problem of utilization of labour resources in the capitalist economy against the background of characterization of the epoch and literature of the subject. In the centre of the analysis is the concept of full utilization of labour resources put forward by Smith and accepted by Ricardo. The author advances a thesis that in as much as the concept expressed conditions prevailing in Smith's epoch it, however, failed to correspond to Ricardo's times. That is why Ricardo put forward a thesis of creation of "population surplus" corresponding to conditiona prevailing in his tires, which in the author's opinion is an expression of originality in Ricardo's thoughts although the fact that Ricardo does not reject Smith's concept being so much different in its sense proves his great inconsistence.