Editing David Ricardo (section)

==Parliamentary record==

As MP for [[Portarlington (UK Parliament constituency)|Portarlington]], Ricardo voted with the opposition in support of liberal political movements in [[Naples]] and [[Sicily]], and for inquiry into the administration of justice in [[Tobago]]. He divided for (voted for) repeal of the [[Six Acts|Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act]]; then for inquiry into the [[Peterloo massacre]]; and, in 1821, for abolition of the [[death penalty]] for [[forgery]].

He supported [[free trade]]. In 1821 he voted against renewal of the sugar duties, and objected to the higher duty on ''East'' Indian as opposed to ''West'' Indian produce. He opposed the timber duties. He voted silently for parliamentary reform and in 1822 spoke in its favour at the Westminster anniversary reform dinner; and again voted for criminal law reform.

Ricardo believed that increasing imports and free trade boosted the well-being of mankind by increasing the amount of goods cheaply available for subsistence and consumption. He was said to have "possessed an extraordinary quickness in perceiving in the turns of the market any accidental difference which might arise between the relative price of different stocks".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zweig |first1=Jason |title=Economist David Ricardo |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-MBB-60411 |work=The Wall Street Journal |date=26 May 2017 |access-date=16 April 2021}}</ref> He grew his wealth dealing in securities during the Revolutionary and [[Napoleonic wars]].

As the Napoleonic Wars waged on, Ricardo developed a disdain for the [[Corn Laws]] imposed by the British to encourage exports. Notably, government intervention in the [[grain trade]] can be traced as far back as the 1400s; and thereafter trade was controlled, regulated, and taxed. Meanwhile, England developed a capitalist economy involving workers and landlords generating and consuming incomes and capital accumulations that depended entirely on capitalists’ profits,<ref>{{cite book |last1=King |first1=John |title=David Ricardo |date=2013 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=UK |isbn=978-0-230-28996-3 |page=88}}</ref> and these key economic elements were under perpetual pressure during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Political reform was needed as agricultural output was struggling to keep pace with population growth. The Corn Laws imposed barriers to imports that increased subsistence/consumption costs and triggered demand for higher wages. Higher wages reduced profits for agricultural producers, and had the immediate effects of reducing capital investments and slowing the growth of a nation's economy. Rising rents, attributed by Ricardo to the Corn Laws, came at the expense of the economic profits of nations. For David Ricardo, free trade was ever the answer; he envisioned Britain as importing agriculture products in exchange for exporting manufactured goods.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Davis |first1=Timothy |title=Ricardo's Macroeconomics |date=2005 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=New York City |isbn=0-521-84474-6 |page=29}}</ref> Eventually, after his death, the interventionist laws were repealed, and his free trade views became public policy in Britain.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Formaini |first1=Robert |title=David Ricardo - Theory of Free International Trade |journal=Economic Insights |date=n.d. |volume=9 |issue=2 |url=https://www.dallasfed.org/~/media/documents/research/ei/ei0402.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161224112140/https://www.dallasfed.org/~/media/documents/research/ei/ei0402.pdf |archive-date=2016-12-24 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Of David Ricardo, his friend John Louis Mallett commented: " … he meets you upon every subject that he has studied with a mind made up, and opinions in the nature of mathematical truths. He spoke of parliamentary reform and ballot as a man who would bring such things about, and destroy the existing system tomorrow, if it were in his power, and without the slightest doubt on the result … It is this very quality of the man’s mind, his entire disregard of experience and practice, which makes me doubtful of his opinions on political economy."