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• Preface
• A Memoir of Ricardo With Addenda
• Note On the Authorship of the Memoir
• Addenda to the Memoir of Ricardo
• I.: Introductory
• II.: The Family of Abraham Ricardo
• III.: The Delvalle Family
• IV.: Ricardo’s Childhood and Education
• V.: Independence and Marriage
• VI.: The Wilkinsons
• A Family Who’s Who
• I.: David Ricardo’s Brothers and Sisters
• II.: Ricardo’s Children
• Ricardo In Business
• Ricardo In Business
• I.: As a Jobber On the Stock Exchange
• II.: As Loan Contractor
• III.: A Canard
• IV.: Investments and Estates
• V.: Ricardo’s Will
• A Selection of Family and Private Letters
• I: Early Letters to J. H. Wilkinson
• 1.: Ricardo to Wilkinson1
• 2.: Ricardo to Wilkinson1
• 3: Ricardo to Wilkinson1
• 4: Ricardo to Wilkinson2
• 5: Ricardo to Wilkinson1
• 6: Ricardo to Wilkinson1
• Other Correspondence With J.h. Wilkinson
• II: ‘ricardo’s Letter to the Old Doctor’
• III: The Fraud of 5 May 1803
• IV: The Loan of 1807
• V: Jacob Ricardo
• VI: Two Sisters Decline a Present
• VII: A Visit to Cambridge
• VIII: A Letter to a Wine Merchant
• IX: The Cumberland Affair
• 1.: Sydney Cumberland to Ricardo3
• 2.: Sydney Cumberland to Ricardo1
• 3.: George Cumberland to Ricardo1
• 4.: Ricardo to George Cumberland 1
• 5.: George Cumberland to Ricardo1
• 6.: Ricardo to George Cumberland
• X: A Servant and Two Masters
• XI: Fanny’s Marriage
• Edward Austin Sen. to Ricardo 3
• Ricardo to Edward Austin Sen. 1
• XII: Ricardo to Miss Mary Ann
• From Maria Edgeworth’s Letters to Her Family
• 1.: To Her Stepmother Mrs Edgeworth From Gatcomb Park 9 Nov. 1821
• 2.: To the Same From Gatcomb Park 10 Nov. 1821
• 3.: To Her Sister Lucy Edgeworth From Gatcomb Park 12 Nov. 1821
• 4.: To Her Aunt Mrs Ruxton From London 9 March 1822
• Journal of a Tour On the Continent 1822
• Introductory Note to the Journal of a Tour On the Continent
• Appendices
• (a.) Bibliography of Ricardo’s Works
• (b.) a Survey of Ricardo Manuscripts
• (c.) Commonplace Books
• (d) Ricardo’s Library
• Supplement to Volume I New Evidence On the Subdivision of Chapter Viii of the ‘principles’ 1817
• Supplement to Volume Iv Notes On ‘a Reply to Mr. Say’s Letters to Mr. Malthus’
• Corrections to the First Printing of the Previous Volumes*

plan of the edition

• volumeI. Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
• II. Notes on Malthus
• III. Pamphlets and Papers, 1809–1811
• IV. Pamphlets and Papers, 1815–1823
• V. Speeches and Evidence
• VI. Letters, 1810–1815
• VII. Letters, 1816–1818
• VIII. Letters, 1819-June 1821
• IX. Letters, July 1821–1823
• X. Biographical Miscellany
• XI. General Index

PREFACE

This volume, without pretensions to be a complete biography, is composed of materials which bear upon Ricardo’s life and character. It opens with a Memoir written by one of his brothers and to this has been attached, under the title of Addenda, some new information that has come to light about the patriarchal family into which he was born and about his youth and education until the final breach with his parents. There follow chapters on his business activity as a stock-jobber and loan-contractor, and on how he invested the fortune which he had made. Finally, a series of letters of a domestic character show Ricardo in a variety of moods and circumstances. The whole forms a sort of scrap-book illustrating those aspects and periods of his life which are not represented in the previous volumes.

While the selection of private letters has none of the unity of the economic correspondence, it can be claimed that the selecting was largely done by Ricardo himself, in that they cover all the occasions on which he saw fit to keep, besides his correspondents’ letters, also a copy of his own. Of the other private letters which have been included, those to his brother-in-law J. H. Wilkinson are notable for antedating by fifteen years any letters of Ricardo that have hitherto been known. The Journal of a Tour on the Continent in 1822, which had previously been printed only for private circulation and with excisions, is now published in full.

Thanks are due once more to the late Lt.-Col. H. G. Ricardo and to Mr Frank Ricardo, and also to Canon Horace Ricardo Wilkinson and to Mr Peter W. Ricardo, for their help in tracing the history of the family and for making available manuscripts and documents in their possession. Access to the records of the Bank of England has been made possible through the courtesy of Professor O. M. W. Sprague, when he was Economic Adviser to the Bank, and of Mr Humphrey Mynors, the present Deputy-Governor. Similarly, with respect to the records of the Stock Exchange, acknowledgement is due to Mr A. L. F. Green, late secretary of the Committee for General Purposes. Sir John Murray has kindly supplied information from the records of his publishing house, and the late Professor H. E. Butler from the papers of Maria Edgeworth. Great help in exploring the ancestry of Ricardo has been received from Mr Wilfred S. Samuel, from Mr Edgar R. Samuel and above all from the late Mr J. N. Nabarro. Finally the editor must thank Mrs Barbara Lowe for assistance in annotating the Journal, Dr Eduard Rosenbaum for research in Holland and Miss Ellen H. Green for enquiries into Ricardo’s connection with the Unitarian Chapel at Hackney.

P.S.

trinity college cambridgeApril 1954

Mrs David Ricardo c.1821 from the miniature by Thomas Heaphy.