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• Prefatory Note
• Additional Letters
• 3a.: Ricardo to His Superior Officer, S. Beckett1
• 137a.: Ricardo to Joseph Hume2
• 197a.: Malthus to Ricardo1[reply to Letter 197.—ANSWERED By 199]
• 259a.: Ricardo to Torrens1
• 418a.: Ricardo to Miss Bayley1
• 492a.: Ricardo to Thomas Booth3
• 516a.: Ricardo to Wilmot Horton1
• 517a.: Mallet to Ricardo1[answered By 517b]
• 517b.: Ricardo to Mallet1[reply to 517a]
• 531a.: Townsend to Ricardo1[answered By 531b]
• 531b.: Ricardo to Townsend1[reply to 531a]
• Ricardo to Wright1
• Thomas Tooke to John Murray1
• Additional Notes
• Corrections to the First Printing of Volumes I-x*(additional to the List In Vol. X, P. 411)

[p. 45] Identification of ‘Piercy Ravenstone, M.A.’ Ricardo refers several times with interest to the book, A few Doubts as to the Correctness of some Opinions generally entertained on the subjects of Population and Political Economy, ‘by Piercy Ravenstone, M.A.’1 It has been generally accepted that ‘Piercy Ravenstone’ is a pseudonym,2 and it is now possible to give the author’s real name.

A copy of A few Doubts has come to light, on the title-page of which ‘Piercy Ravenstone, M.A.’ has been crossed out, and ‘Richard Puller’ written in; ‘Puller on Political Economy’ is lettered on the spine of the binding, which is contemporary; this may well have been the author’s own copy. Another copy, which is in the Feltrinelli Library in Milan, is inscribed on the fly-leaf: ‘The real author of this book was Richard Puller, brother of Sir Christopher Puller, Chief-Justice of Bengal, and uncle of Christopher Puller, member for Hertfordshire about 1858. The present head of the family is Charles Puller, of Youngsbury, Herts.’3

The chapter on Machinery (which was added in ed. 3 of the Principles, 1821) was first translated into French in the Paris edition of 1847, and the above passage read as follows: ‘l’opinion des classes ouvrières sur les machines qu’ils croient fatales à leurs intérêts, ne repose pas seulement sur l’erreur et les préjugés, mais sur les principes les plus fermes, les plus nets de l’Économie politique.’1 (Editor’s italics.)

The intrusion of the word ‘seulement’ made nonsense of the whole statement. The editor of the next French edition (1882) tried to put it right without referring to the original English; and taking it for granted that Ricardo must have held the orthodox view, amended the passage to read: ‘l’opinion des classes ouvrières sur les machines qu’ils croient fatales à leurs intérêts, ne repose pas seulement sur l’erreur et les préjugés, mais sur l’ignorance des principes les plus fermes, les plus nets, de l’Économie politique.’2 (Editor’s italics.) Thus the revised version represented Ricardo as saying precisely the opposite of what he had actually said.

Corrections to the First Printing of Volumes I-X*
(Additional to the list in Vol. X, p. 411)

volume i

p. xxxviii, note 3, for n. 2 read n. 3

p. 99, n. 2, line 4, for 1815 read 1816

p. 248, n. 3, last line, for 40, n. 2, read 41, n. 1

p. 421, n. 2, col. 2, end of last line, for rent. read rent,

volume ii

p. 336, line 7 from bottom, for cause

read causesp. 455, col. 1, under Distribution, lines 2–3, for introduction read production

volume iii

p. 165, line 8, for ‘disadvantages’ [misquoted by Ricardo] read ‘advantages’

p. 179, n. 3, line 2, for An II read An XI

p. 345, line 2 and line 6, for October read September

p. 345, n. 2, lines 1–4, for ‘Advertisement in Monthly Literary Advertiser, 10 Oct. 1810: a new edition was advertised on 10 Jan. 1811’ read ‘Advt. in The Times, 23 Sept. 1810; and a new ed., ib. 13 Dec. 1810 [nos. 2 and 4 in F. W. Fetter’s ‘Editions of the Bullion Report’, Economica, 1955, pp. 153–4]’

volume iv

p. 45, line 20, for their read its

p. 100, n. 2, last line, for 1926 read 1826

p. 125, line 3, for 1814 read 1804

p. 126, note †, for p. [120] read p. [122]

p. 157, line 14, for fifty-read sixty-(error in Enc. Brit.)

p. 162, line 26, for 793, 343 read 793, 348 (misprint in Enc. Brit.)

p. 274, line 11, for 14 pages read 14 leaves

p. 420, in heading, for Editions 1–2 read Edition 2

volume v

p. xx, n. 4, for 197–8 read 246

p. xxix, n. 2, for Cobbett’s Parliamentary Debates read Cobbett’s Parliamentary Register

p. 369, n. 1, for Abbott read Abbot

p. 432, no. 54, for as read has

no. 55, for found read sound

p. 461, lines 4 and 12, for Catley read Cattley

p. 522, n. 3, for vol. X read X, 349

p. 530, col. 1, 3 lines from bottom, for Catley, Mr read Cattley, Stephen

col. 2, line 21, for 491 n. read 492 n.

col. 2, line 29, for 364, read 365

p. 532, col. 2, under Marcet, for 353–4 read 352–3

p. 534, col. 1, line 7, for Sidney read Sydney

volume vi

p. viii, letter 103, for 1915 read 1815

p. xvi, n. 1, for VIII read VII

p. 337, 14 lines from bottom, at end of line, comma instead of full stop

volume vii

p. 120, n. 3, line 2, for 10 read 410

p. 121, n. 1, add [But see XI, x-xi]

p. 197, n., col. 2, last line, for 1779 read 1781

p. 244, line 6, for difficult read different

volume viii

p. 116, n. 1, line 4, for 116 read 261

p. 207, n. 1, for I read II

p. 208, n. 3, for 22–4 read 122–4

volume x

p. 359, entry [1h], line 2, for [12] read [13]. (The same correction to be made on p. 360, entry [2c], line 2; p. 361, entry [3d], line 3; and p. 366, entry [6f], line 2.)

p. 363, entry [5a], the paragraph headed Variant should not be under the First Edition of Principles but under the Third Edition on p. 364, entry [5c]

p. 397, line 11 from bottom, for 179 read 197

p. 400, line 11, for Supplement, 1811 read Supplement, 1810

[1 ]London, J. Andrews, 1821. See above, IX, 45, 59–60, 62–3, 64.

[2 ]See Max Beer, History of British Socialism, Vol. i, p. 251, and Kenneth Smith, The Malthusian Controversy,p. 142. Professor J. Dorfman, in his Introduction to the reprint of A few Doubts (A. M. Kelley, New York,1966), has suggested that Ravenstone was the Anglican minister, Edward Edwards, but there appears to be no evidence to support this conjecture.

[3 ]Charles Puller inherited Youngsbury in 1885 and died in 1892— which fixes the time limits for this inscription.

[1 ]Œuvres complètes de David Ricardo (in Collection des principaux économistes), Paris, 1847, p. 367.

[2 ]Œuvres complètes de David Ricardo (in Collection des principaux économistes), Paris, 1882, p. 329.

[* ][These corrections are reflected in the 2004 Liberty Fund Edition.]