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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 162.: ricardo to malthus3[Answered by 163] - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 7 Letters 1816-1818

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162.: ricardo to malthus3[Answered by 163] - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 7 Letters 1816-1818 [1816]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 7 Letters 1816-1818.

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.


162.

ricardo to malthus3
[Answered by 163]

My dear Sir

It is not too soon to remind you that Mrs. Ricardo and I expect to have the pleasure of Mrs. Malthus’ and your company at our house on your visit to London in the next week. —I hope it will be early in the week, and that you will not be in so great a hurry to get home as you usually are. On the monday, after your club meeting, I shall ask a few of your and my friends to meet you at dinner, and on sunday, or any other day, perhaps Warburton and Mill will take a family meal with us.

I have just received an invitation from Mr. Blake to dine with him on friday the 3d. May, and I have taken upon myself to let you know from him that he hopes you will favor him with your company on that day. You will I trust be also agreeable to this arrangement.

I hope you have made better use of your time than I have done of mine, and that you are making rapid advances with the different works which you have in hand. I have done nothing since I saw you as I have been obliged to go very often into the city, and after leaving off for a day or two I have the greatest disinclination to commence work again. I may continue to amuse myself with my speculations, but I do not think I shall ever proceed further. Obstacles almost invincible oppose themselves to my progress, and I find the greatest difficulty to avoid confusion in the most simple of my statements.

Have you seen Torrens letters to the Earl of Lauderdale in the Sun? I think he has published 5. They are chiefly on the subject of currency and are ingenious, though I think they support some very incorrect doctrines. They are signed with his name.1

Horner I understand will oppose the continuance of the restriction bill—he does not deny now the fall in the value of gold and silver since the termination of the war. There can not be a better opportunity than the present for the Bank to recommence payments in specie. Silver is actually under the mintprice. The change is surprising [and has been]1 brought about in a very unexpected [manner].

Mrs. Ricardo joins with me [in] kind regards to Mrs. Malthus.

Very truly Yours

David Ricardo

[3 ]Addressed: ‘To / The Revd. TR Malthus / East India College / Hertford’.

MS at Albury.—Letters to Malthus, XLVI.

[1 ]The letters, under the heading ‘National Currency’, had been published in the Sun (‘a paper that appears daily but never shines’, according to the Edinburgh Review, May 1823, p. 368) from 18 to 23 April; a sixth and last letter appeared on 30 April. Torrens’s object, as stated in the first letter, was to show ‘the expediency of continuing the restriction of cash payments, and of rendering silver the standard of our currency’.

[1 ]MS torn here and below.