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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*

xii

Ricardo to Miss Mary Ann

The young lady who had asked Ricardo for an autograph for her collection, and to whom this letter was written in response, has not been identified. The MS formed Lot 1907 at Sotheby’s sale of 15 October 1945 and was bought by Maggs Bros.

Upper Brook Street 20 April 1822

My Dear Miss Mary Ann

I hasten to comply with the request of a young lady for whom I have a great regard, although in so doing I run some risk of losing a portion of the good opinion which she now has of me. You require a letter from me, and a letter you shall have; but what shall it contain? that is the difficult point. About what is a man of fifty, for that was the age I attained last thursday,1 to write to a young lady under twenty? When I was young I shone little in such a correspondence, now how much less? On thursday last, on this birth day of mine, my saucy children with half a dozen cousins of theirs who were dining with us, headed by Mrs. Ricardo, suddenly started up with wine in their glasses to drink my health, and Mortimer2 insisted on their accompanying him in three cheers on the occasion, with which they complied. I thanked them for the compliment they had paid me, but that did not content them, they were clamorous for a speech. I assured them that I could not make speeches unless they were about rent, or profit, or currency, or some such dry subject:—a speech of this description they declined hearing, and thus I got rid of their importunities. If I were to write to you on any of the above subjects I should be taking a mean advantage of you.—I have you in my power—you cannot help yourself, and if I spare you, you must be beholden to me for my forbearance. Well then I will be generous. For your father’s sake to whom for many years I have been indebted for innumerable acts of kindness—for your sisters’ sake, who are great favorites of mine—and though last not least, for your own sake, I forbear to give you an Essay on rent, profit, or currency. I may however say a few words about wealth, just for the purpose of wishing you may have just as much of it, and no more, as will make you happy and contented. Too much wealth would I fear spoil you, too little would make you suffer privation—I like neither extreme. There is a medium most favorable to independence of character, and to the due cultivation of the mind, and it is this medium quantity which I desire for you. I should be sorry if any thing took from you the enjoyments which books are calculated to afford—they teach us how to think justly, and to think justly is one of the best sources of happiness. You must not however suppose that I limit my wishes for your welfare to the possession of money and to the love of books; I go a great deal further, and you will easily imagine that the other concomitants to the happiness of an amiable young woman, are present to my mind at this moment. I wish them all to you, and not to you only but to those sisters of yours who are so deserving of them.

When I look back on the quantity I have written I am surprised at the facility with which I have advanced. I hope my success will not make me rash. I luckily recollect the object you had in view in requesting me to write to you. I cannot but be sensible of the danger I am running that even in your opinion my letter may not be deemed deserving of a place in your collection—you who are disposed to judge me leniently. You have involved me into a difficult situation. If I write I appear to advance a claim—if I refuse to write I am guilty of unkindness to one whom I greatly wish to oblige. In this choice of difficulties it is wise to chuse the least and therefore I lay my letter with due humility at your feet, with assurances of my regard and esteem.

Ever my dear young friend Yours truly

David Ricardo

[1 ]18 April.

[2 ]Ricardo’s youngest son.