Author

David Ricardo

1772-1823 · English economist and stockbroker of the classical school, known for comparative advantage and the theory of rent

Short biography: David Ricardo in Great Lives

About David Ricardo

David Ricardo (1772–1823) was born in London into a Sephardic Jewish family from the Netherlands and joined his father's stockbroking business at fourteen. After marrying a Quaker at twenty-one he broke with his family, became a Unitarian and made a large fortune as a stockjobber and government loan contractor. Reading Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations in 1799 turned him to economics. His pamphlets on the bullion question (1810) and on the corn laws (1815) were followed by the Principles (1817). He sat in Parliament for the Irish borough of Portarlington from 1819 until his death at Gatcombe Park, Gloucestershire, in 1823.

Notable works

Frequently Cited

“To determine the laws which regulate this distribution, is the principal problem in Political Economy”
On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Preface
“Rent is that portion of the produce of the earth, which is paid to the landlord for the use of the original and indestructible powers of the soil.”
On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter II: On rent
“Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and labour to such employments as are most beneficial to each.”
On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Chapter VI: On foreign trade

On this site

On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation

David Ricardo

1817 · 19th Century · Political Theory

On the Principles of Political Economy, and Taxation is the treatise David Ricardo published in London in April 1817, when he was a retired stockbroker of forty-five who had already made his name in the bullion and corn-law controversies. Its Preface states the problem at once: the produce of the earth is divided among landlords, capitalists and labourers as rent, profit and wages, and the task of political economy is to find the laws that govern that division as a society grows.

Money WealthClass / SocietyPower / Politics