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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*

NOTE ON THE AUTHORSHIP OF THE MEMOIR

The Memoir of Ricardo was published unsigned in The Annual Biography and Obituary, for the year 1824.1 In the Preface the editor of the series states that three of the memoirs in the volume, including that of Ricardo, ‘are from much more able pens than his own’. M^cCulloch, who in the successive editions of his Life and Writings of Mr Ricardo quotes from the Memoir, says that it is ‘supposed to be written by one of his brothers.’ Various circumstances suggest that the brother in question was Moses Ricardo: he was of all the brothers the one most intimately connected with Ricardo; he was with him at the time of his death (a fact referred to in the Memoir itself)2 ; and he is known at a later date to have contemplated writing a full biography of Ricardo.3 Besides, there is a circumstance which definitely points to Moses Ricardo as the author. It has been noted in the introduction to the Bullion Essays4 that the Memoir contains a singular error about the date of Ricardo’s first contribution to the Morning Chronicle: it says that this was published on 6 September 1810,5 whereas the actual date was 29 August 1809. The source of this curious mistake is revealed by a document, which though written after Ricardo’s death has been found among Ricardo’s Papers. This is a packet containing cuttings from the Morning Chronicle of another set of three articles written subsequently by Ricardo, after the publication of the Bullion Report. The first of these is, in fact, dated 6 September 1810. The packet is addressed ‘M. Ricardo, Esq^r.’ and on the wrapper there is this inscription:

‘These are papers written in the Chronicle after the Bullion report—but I have a perfect recollection that he wrote several before Mr Horner moved for a Committee, and I say, and think, that Mr H. was led by those papers to bring the subject before Parliament which I think will be seen by a reference to his speech, as he expresses great doubts on the subject therein. I collected those papers, but I suppose I destroyed them when his first pamphlet appeared which embodied all they contained—but they may easily be seen at the Institution, and I think the dates on them will prove they were written before Mr Horner’s motion for a Committee.’

Evidently Moses Ricardo when preparing the Memoir had sought the help of a friend about Ricardo’s early writings. He seems, however, to have neglected his advice to look up the newspaper files at ‘the Institution’ (namely, the London Institution, of which Moses was a member since its foundation in 1805),1 and to have made what he could of the cuttings that had been supplied to him—whence the error in the date.

The friend in question who had sent the packet was an old friend of David Ricardo, George (or Joshua) Basevi, sen., in whose handwriting the packet is addressed and the note on it inscribed.2

It may be added that, just as James Mill and Moses Ricardo were jointly concerned with the posthumous publication of the Plan for a National Bank,3 so no doubt they kept in touch while Moses was writing the Memoir; and Mill’s influence is noticeable in one or two places, particularly in the paragraph on the Principles.4

[1 ]Vol. viii, London, Longman, 1824, pp. 368–77. The description given above is on the title-page. Onp. 1, however, the caption-title is The Annual Biography and Obituary, of 1823. It contains, in fact, memoirs of persons who had died in 1822 and 1823.

[2 ]Above, p. 12.

[3 ]See below, p. 16.

[4 ]Above, III, 3, n.

[5 ]Above, p. 7.

[1 ]See the Plan and Bye-laws of the London Institution, mentioned below, p. 49, n. 1.

[2 ]As appears from a comparison of the handwriting on the packet with that of a letter from Basevi to his son and namesake the architect which is preserved in the Sir John Soane’s House and Museum in London.

[3 ]See above, IV, 273–4.

[4 ]Above, p. 10.