Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 133.: grenfell to ricardo1 - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 6 Letters 1810-1815

Return to Title Page for The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 6 Letters 1810-1815

133.: grenfell to ricardo1 - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 6 Letters 1810-1815 [1810]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 6 Letters 1810-1815.

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.


133.

grenfell to ricardo1

My dear Sir

I return Mr. Malthus’s Letter,2 —what he says will I trust decide you to print and give the public the Benefit of your Reflexions on Currency and Bank Affairs—I cannot agree with Mr. M—in preferring Silver to Gold as the Standard—I am almost impatient that your Remedy for the quarterly Distress in the Money Market should be known, in the Hope, that when known it will be adopted—

I have determined upon going to Cheltenham on Saturday—I will give you a line from thence to Gatcomb, and propose a day to come over to you—

Did you notice particularly that part of the Second Resolution of Mr Mellish,3 where it is stated that the number of Dividend Warrants for the year ending April 1815, was 565,600? This is a number infinitely below what I had imagined—and proves the number of persons holding funded property to be much fewer than they are generally supposed to be. This number includes of course all the Dividend Warrants issued in the four Quarters—and supposing (which we know is not the Case) that no Individual Fund holder has in his name more than one sort of Stock, for which 2 Dividend Warrants are issued to him in the Year, the Result would be (dividing the Number by 2) that there are no more than 282,800 Stock holders.—But we know in fact that there are many Individuals, who are Holders in all the different sorts of Stock—which would further reduce this number—on the other hand one Dividend Warrant, in Trust Cases, often belongs to many Individuals—The number of Accounts however cannot exceed 282,800. Is this a greater or a less Number than you may have Imagined—It appeared to Mr Tierney as well as to myself much less than we had fancied it to be—

I shall be here till Friday Evening or Saturday Morning—

Believe me My dear Sir Most truly Yours

Pascoe Grenfell.

D. Ricardo Esq

[1 ]MS in R.P.

[2 ]No doubt letter 129.

[3 ]See above, IV, 138.