Abstract
This chapter introduces the reader to the life and the early work of David Ricardo. The first section gives a brief portrait of Ricardo as successful businessman, political economist and Member of Parliament. The second section elucidates Ricardo’s emerging theory of international trade in the light of war, social distress and the Corn Laws. Finally, the third section traces the transition from Ricardo’s early work to his main opus On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation.
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Notes
- 1.
A more detailed account on David Ricardo’s biography can be found in the early sketches of his life by his brother, Moses Ricardo, from 1824 (Vol. X, pp. 1–13, see footnote 2), his acquaintance J. R. McCulloch (1825) or in the more recent biographies by Weatherall (1976) or Henderson and Davis (1997). Consult further Sraffa’s (Vol. X) biographical notes on Ricardo and King’s (2013) work on Ricardo’s life and work.
- 2.
Note that the main source of Ricardo’s writings is the eleven-volume edition of “The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo” (edited by Piero Sraffa and Maurice Dobb). Throughout the text only the volume and the page are cited (for example: Vol. IV, p. 15). The selected quotations in the text should be attributable to the authors from the context.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
Behind this imposition was also the idea that it would stimulate agricultural production and thus lead to more cultivation and a greater domestic supply. The idea of self-sufficiency does not, in the light of the long war and blockade, seem entirely unreasonable.
- 6.
See for example (Blaug, 1958, pp. 6–7).
- 7.
In the words of Mitchell: “(…) is an interesting example of how, when times are ripe, intellectual discovery seems to occur to different minds at about the same time.” (Mitchell, 1967, p. 283).
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Gerber, T. (2017). David Ricardo: His Personality, His Times and His Principles. In: Jones, R., Weder, R. (eds) 200 Years of Ricardian Trade Theory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60606-4_2
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