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252.: malthus to ricardo1 - 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.


252.

malthus to ricardo1

My dear Sir,

Your letter2 did not reach me till this morning, from which I conclude, that notwithstanding its date of the 21st, it did not leave Town till the 23rd.

We are engaged to dinner tomorrow with Sir James M.3 at Mr. Le Bas’s; and Mr. George Eckersall and Miss Bray4 being with us shall have our beds full in the evening, so that probably you will prefer coming on saturday, when we shall have ample room, and be most happy to see you.

I am surprised, with you that Major Torrens should puzzle himself so long with his peculiar objections to your measure of value. For myself, I own, I am quite satisfied with your own concessions; and if as you yourself acknowledge, taxation, foreign materials, and the different quantities of fixed and circulating capitals employed, all prevent the exchangeable value of commodities from being determined by the labour which they have cost in production, I should say, it followed that your theory was only true caeteris paribus, which might be equally said of the cost of the materials.

Given the wages of labour, the profits of stock, and the taxes, the exchangeable value of commodities will vary with the cost of the materials.

I am glad however that Mill remains staunch to the true faith; and I assure you I have a high opinion of his knowledge and talents since I have read the first volume of his work on India, though I fear it is not very popular.

We shall fully expect you to dinner on saturday. You must take another opportunity of coming down when Mackintosh is with us. He would be very happy to take a chaise with you some wednesday morning. But it is now too late for tomorrow. He is obliged to be here before twelve on wednesday morning.

Mrs. M joins me in kind regards to Mrs. Ricardo.

Ever truly Yours

T R Malthus.

[1 ]Addressed: ‘D. Ricardo Esqr / Upper Brook Street. / Grosvenor Square.’ Postmark, 1818.

MS in R.P.

[2 ]Ricardo’s letter is wanting.

[3 ]Mackintosh.

[4 ]Malthus’s niece.