author
David Ricardo
1772–1823
A stockbroker turned thinker, he helped shape classical economics with bold ideas about trade, value, and rent. His work on comparative advantage still echoes through debates about how nations prosper.
2 Audiobooks
On The Principles of Political Economy, and Taxation
by David Ricardo
Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Robert Malthus, 1810-1823
by David Ricardo
About the author
Born in London in 1772, David Ricardo began in finance and made a substantial fortune as a stockbroker before turning seriously to political economy. He entered public life as well, serving in Parliament, and became one of the central figures of classical economics.
Ricardo is best known for explaining comparative advantage, the idea that countries can gain from trade even when one is more efficient at producing everything. He also wrote influentially about wages, profits, rents, and the distribution of income, helping give economics a more systematic form in the early nineteenth century.
His best-known book, On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), had a lasting impact on later economists and political thinkers. Although he died in 1823, his arguments about trade and distribution remain part of the foundations of economic thought.