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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow PREFATORY NOTE to volumes iii and iv - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 3 Pamphlets and Papers 1809-1811

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PREFATORY NOTE to volumes iii and iv - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 3 Pamphlets and Papers 1809-1811 [1809]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 3 Pamphlets and Papers 1809-1811.

Part of: The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, 11 vols (Sraffa ed.)

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


plan of the edition

  • volumeI. Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
  • II. Notes on Malthus
  • III. Pamphlets and Papers, 1809–1811
  • IV. Pamphlets and Papers, 1815–1823
  • V. Speeches and Evidence
  • VI. Letters, 1810–1815
  • VII. Letters, 1816–1818
  • VIII. Letters, 1819-June 1821
  • IX. Letters, July 1821–1823
  • X. Biographical Miscellany
  • XI. General Index

PREFATORY NOTE to volumes iii and iv

These two volumes under the general title of ‘Pamphlets and Papers’ contain Ricardo’s shorter writings. The division between the two volumes is chronological. Volume III has a greater unity in that it consists entirely of writings on monetary subjects of the period of the Bullion Controversy, while Volume IV is composed of miscellaneous pieces which extend over the later years of Ricardo’s life. Each volume is divided into two parts, the first containing more formal writings intended for publication, the second notes and papers from Ricardo’s manuscripts. It is chiefly in the second part of each volume that the new material will be found; practically all the writings in that part of Volume IV being unpublished hitherto.

As in the previous volumes, the editor’s footnotes are distinguished by numerals and by being generally printed in double column. Two editorial footnotes which were too long for insertion in their proper places have been severally put in Appendices at the end of each of the two volumes. In printing from original manuscripts the spelling, punctuation and abbreviations of Ricardo have generally been followed, as specified in Section v of the Introduction to Volume II.

To each volume have been appended Tables of Corresponding Pages to facilitate the identification in the present edition of pagereferences by earlier writers to the previous editions of the pamphlets.

These two volumes had to a large extent been prepared before the War (as has been explained in the General Preface in Volume I) and thus they could benefit from the advice of the late Lord Keynes who read in draft the editorial matter and suggested a number of improvements. Acknowledgement is also due to Mr Frank Ricardo and to Mr C. K. Mill for generously making available MSS in their possession; to the Bibliothe‘que Publique et Universitaire de Gene‘ve for the loan of the MS of the Notes on Bentham; to Professor F. A. Hayek for finding the annotated copy of Blake’s Observations and to the Librarian of Somerville College, Oxford, for making it available; and to The Johns Hopkins Press for permission to use material first published by them. Special mention must be made of editorial assistance given by Dr Karl Bode and Mrs Barbara Lowe in preparing a number of these papers for publication.

p.s.