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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*

iii

The Fraud of 5 May 1803

On 5 May 1803, when war with France was about to break out again after the short-lived Peace of Amiens, a daring fraud was committed upon the Stock Exchange by the posting of a notice at the Mansion House announcing that the negotiations with France had been ‘brought to an amicable conclusion’. The prices of the Funds rose by about 10 per cent before the news was denied by the Lord Mayor. A meeting of the Stock Exchange was held and all bargains were declared void.1 The three stockbrokers to whom the following letter is addressed were presumably a committee appointed to clear up the consequences of the fraud: a process with which Ricardo was obviously very much concerned.2 Of this nothing is known in detail. But the author of the hostile pamphlet which has been quoted above, p. 93–4, suggests that it was Ricardo (even though he does not mention him by name) who ‘harangued upon the adopting, if he did not move,’ the cancellation of bargains.1

A similar fraud on the Stock Exchange was again attempted in 1814, which is known as the Cochrane hoax. Ricardo’s activity on that occasion as a member of the Committee for the Protection of Property against Fraud has been described above, VI, 106–7.

letter to a stock exchange committee2

Gentlemen,

I had little expectation that any circumstance connected with the transactions of the 5^th of May 1803 could have afforded me gratification, but your letter,3 which I received this day, expressing your approbation of my conduct subsequent to that day, in terms so particularly grateful, has given me the most cordial satisfaction.—I have always placed too much value on your good opinion, Gentlemen, not to receive this testimonial of it with pride.—It shall be a further stimulus to me to endeavour to deserve your esteem.

I beg again to return my thanks for your disinterested services in a cause in which I was so particularly interested, and which by your zeal is at last brought to a happy termination.

May prosperity and happiness ever attend you.

Believe me Gentlemen with the greatest regard

Your obliged friend and Serv^t

David Ricardo

Mile-end July 22^d 1806.

Mess. Rob^t

Podmore C. H.

Hancock and

Ja^s Steers.

[1 ]See John Francis, Chronicles and Characters of the Stock Exchange, London, 1850, p. 185–6.

[2 ]These three (Podmore, Hancock and Steers), along with Ricardo, had been among those elected to the first Committee for General Purposes of the new Stock Exchange on 8 Feb. 1802. A few weeks later, on 3 March 1802, the three of them resigned from the Committee, and, the Minutes add, ‘Mr Ricardo, who was present, stated his reasons also and withdrew his name from the Committee.’ The reasons, however, are not recorded. (MS Minutes in the possession of the Stock Exchange.)

[1 ]An Exposé..., 1821, p. 6–7. Ricardo is alluded to as ‘one who afterwards led the combination against Goldschmidt’ and who ‘has risen to conspicuous importance in a certain assembly’.

[2 ]Addressed: ‘R. Podmore, C H Hancock and Jas. Steers Esqres’. MS (a copy in Ricardo’s handwriting) in R.P.

[3 ]This letter is missing.