Ricardo, David | The magnum opus of "the first 'scientific' economist"

Ricardo, David

On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation. London:, John Murray, 1817

8vo (212 x 133). Some occasional very light marginal browning. Nineteenth-century half vellum over marbled boards by Hersant, Gower Place (stamp-signed), green plain endpapers, red-sprinkled edges; spine foxed. Oatmeal buckram folding-case, brown morocco spine label.

First edition of Ricarodo's major classic in the history of political economy. By 1817, through the publication of a number of notable pamphlets, Ricardo had become a respected authority on questions of economics. Urged by James Mill and others to set down a systematic account of his theories, he produced the present work. "Ricardo was, in a sense, the first 'scientific' economist. Lacking Smith's warmth of sympathy for humanity and for the labourer in particular, Ricardo saw the study of economics as a pure science whose abstractions were capable of quasi-mathematical proof. Although his theorems remain hypothetical, his deductive methods have proved of great use in the elementary analysis of economic problems, and in the subjects which are capable of his rigid analysis, currency and banking, it has proved of lasting value. … Ricardo also developed Adam Smith's theory of taxes as a part of the theory of distribution. A tax is not always paid by those on whom it is levied; a correct taxation policy will always depend on a correct estimate of the indirect and ultimate effects of every form of tax" (Printing and the Mind of Man).

REFERENCES:

Goldsmiths’ Library 21734; Kress B7029; Printing and the Mind of Man 277