Abstract
My previous contribution to this series was devoted to Nicholas Kaldor (1908–1986), a man with a very high opinion of David Ricardo as an economic theorist, even though he was never himself in any sense a Ricardian. Kaldor once described Ricardo’s Principles as being ‘generally regarded as the basis of modern economics’ (Kaldor 1978, p. 183). As he wrote in 1982, with reference to Keynes’s General Theory: ‘It will rank as one of the top 5 classics in the field — of comparable importance to Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Ricardo’s Principles, Marx’s Das Kapital and Alfred Marshall’s Principles of Economics’ (Kaldor 1982, p. 259). Half a century earlier, Claud Guillebaud (1927, p. 16) went even further, describing Ricardo as ‘perhaps the greatest intellect which has turned to economic science’. If this is a contentious assessment, it is probably more generally accepted that ‘no figure in the history of economics has been more controversial than Ricardo’ (Whitaker 1989, p. 492).1
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Copyright information
© 2013 John E. King
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
King, J.E. (2013). The Life and Times of David Ricardo. In: David Ricardo. Great Thinkers in Economics Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137315953_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137315953_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-33116-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-31595-3
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)