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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 331.: mcculloch to ricardo1[Answered by 333] - The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 8 Letters 1819-June 1821

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331.: mcculloch to ricardo1[Answered by 333] - David Ricardo, The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, Vol. 8 Letters 1819-June 1821 [1819]

Edition used:

The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa with the Collaboration of M.H. Dobb (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2005). Vol. 8 Letters 1819-1821.

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.


331.

mcculloch to ricardo1
[Answered by 333]

My Dear Sir

I have taken the liberty to enclose a proof of the article on Exchange written by me for the Supplement to the Encyclopaedia Brittannica; which I hope you will have the goodness to read over and return to me with such remarks as you may think proper, in order that I may have it in my power, by availing myself of your suggestions, to correct those errors into which I am sure I must have fallen, before the article is sent to press—I have bestowed a great deal of time on this article; but as I was but very indifferently acquainted with the practical part I cannot flatter myself that I have succeeded in giving a proper view of the subject.

I was extremely happy to learn that you had agreed to write the Article Funding System; as well on account of the great importance of disseminating just views on so very important a subject, and because it must give additional value to a work which I consider as reflecting the greatest credit on the country—

If you have looked into the last Number of the Review, you would perhaps recognise an Essay by one of your friends1 —The restrictions on the trade between Great Britain and France seem to me to be among the most destructive of all the means which national prejudice ever suggested for cramping and fettering the progress of real opulence and lasting improvement—I trust that ere long the subject will be discussed in Parliament; and in the present situation of the country its agitation in that Assembly would be productive of the best effects—I only express the general opinion of all well informed persons when I say that no one could introduce the subject so properly as yourself—

You will be glad to learn that the University of Saint Andrews, has, with a zeal for the advancement of sound knowledge which reflects the highest honour on that ancient seminary, adopted your great work as their text book on the science of which it treats—

I sent you two Numbers of the Scotsman, which I hope you got safe, containing characters of the late Professor Playfair and Mr Watt2 written by Mr Jeffrey—I am sure you would be very much gratified with them both. Mr Watts character was most felicitously and beautifully described—

Mr Torrens speech at the meeting at London on the subject of Owens visionary and utopian schemes seemed to me to be extremely good, and indeed one of the best things that I ever recollect to have met with3 —It is astonishing that a person who could write the Essay on the Corn Trade, and make the speech in question, should have opposed, and on such untenable grounds the plan of Bullion payments1 —I am

My Dear Sir with the greatest respect Yours most faithfully

J. R. McCulloch

[1 ]MS in R.P.

[1 ]Edinburgh Review, July 1819, Art. III. ‘Commercial Embarrassments—Trade with France’, by McCulloch.

[2 ]Scotsman, 21 Aug. and 4 Sept. 1819.

[3 ]The Scotsman of 21 August published ‘exclusively’ a full report of Torrens’ speech on Owen’s plan at the London Tavern on 26 July 1819. Torrens reproduced it almost verbatim in his article in the Edinburgh Review for Oct. 1819, pp. 464–9 and 475–6 (see below, p. 159, n. 2).

[1 ]See R. Torrens, A Comparative Estimate of the Effects which a Continuance and a Removal of the Restriction upon Cash Payments are respectively calculated to produce: with Strictures on Mr. Ricardo’s Proposal for Obtaining a Secure and Economical Currency, London, Hunter, 1819.