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166.: ricardo to malthus1 - 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:

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166.

ricardo to malthus1

My dear Sir

From what you said when you left London, it is probable that you will not be at the Club on saturday next. If your visit to town should be deferred till the following tuesday we have a bed at your service—it is now occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Smith, our Gloucestershire friends. In case you should come sooner I hope you will be able to pass much of your time with us. Our breakfast hour is now at so reasonable a time that I hope you will take that meal with us the first morning you are in London, and then settle how often we shall see you at dinner.

I suppose you have been too busy in official occupations, since we last met, to have made much progress in the writings which you have in hand. I hope however that you will be prepared to give the public the result of your well considered opinions in due season. We have a right to look to you for the correction of some difficulties and contradictions with which Political Economy is encumbered.

Major Torrens tells me that he shall work hard for the next few months, so that we may expect a book on the same subject from him next year.2 He continues to hold some heretical opinions on money and exchange notwithstanding Mr. Mill and I have exerted all our eloquence to bring him to the right faith. We however have succeeded in removing some of the obscurity which clouds his vision on the principles of exchange.—He is I think quite a convert to all what you have called my peculiar opinions on profits, rent, &ca.&ca.,—so that I may now fairly say that I hold no principles on Political Economy which have not the sanction either of your or his authority, which renders it much less important that I should persevere in the task which I commenced of giving my opinions to the public.—Those principles will be much more ably supported either by you or by him than I could attempt to support them:—My labours have wholly ceased for two months;—whether in the quiet and calm of the country I shall again resume them is very doubtful. My vanity has not received sufficient stimulus to remove the temptation which is constantly offering itself to the indulgence of my idle habits.

The fine weather is come opportunely for your vacation. I suppose you will commence your travels without much delay.—I hope we shall meet at Gatcomb before you return home.—

Believe me Ever truly Yours

David Ricardo

[1 ]Addressed: ‘To / The Revd. T R Malthus / East India College / Hertford’.

MS at Albury.—Letters to Malthus, XLVII.

[2 ]Although a forthcoming book of Torrens is mentioned from time to time in this correspondence (below, pp. 141, 251, and VIII, 22, 47), he did not publish any book, as distinct from pamphlets, till his Essay on the Production of Wealth in 1821.