The Life and Economics of David Ricardo, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1997

John P. Henderson's The Life and Economics of David Ricardo represents the first comprehensive personal and intellectual biography of the brilliant and influential British economist. Employing the talents of both a biographer and an economist, the author examines Ricardo's early years, his Sephardic origins and his employment in the London financial markets, as well as his later work on money and banking, international trade, economic instability and the theory of rent and value. Henderson also provides a thorough investigation of Ricardo's relationships with Thomas Robert Malthus and other classical economists.
The Life and Economics of David Ricardo will be of interest not only to historians of economic thought and students of economics, but also to any economist working in the Ricardian or Classical Political Economy tradition.

I. The Multiple Role of the Biographer.- Ricardo’s Three Careers.- Ricardo The Man and His Times.- Ricardo and the Economists.- Sraff’s Ricardo.- The Post-Sraffa Literature.- The Ingredients ol Biography.- II. The Sephardic Heritage in English Society Religion ana Commerce 55.- The Judan-Israel Kingdom.- The Early Jews of England.- The Period of the Expulsion.- The London Sephardim.- III. The Family Heritage: Eighteenth-Century Finance.- The Israel Ricardos.- The New Instruments of Credit and Finance.- Origins of the London Stock Exchange.- The Jacobite Threat.- The Family of Abraham Israel Ricardo and Abigail Delvalle.- IV. Boyhood in London and Amsterdam.- Countryside and City.- The City and MetropoIis of London.- The London MOB.- The Parental Family.- David’s Education.- The Years in Amsterdam.- A Rite of Passage.- V. The Taming of Tradition.- Bow and Old Ford.- The Identity Conflict.- “Osman” and “Jesse”.- The Lifestyle of David and Priscilla.- VI. THe Gestation of an Economist: Early Financial Career.- The Water and the Fisk.- “Romer’s Rule”.- “Let Your Profits Run On”.- Political Economy During the First Decade ot the Century.- Monetary Expediency.- VII. Malthus and the Corn Law:Ricardo and his Circle.- James Mill and Robert Malthus.- Tke Private Dedate. 1811-1815.- Public Debate 1815: Malthus and Ricardo on the Corn Law.- “Over Again More at Large”.- The Facility of Production, Relative Prices and the Effects Upon Profits.- Bank ot England Profits and A Partial Return to Specie Payment.- VIII. Ricardo’s Principles and the Question of Value.- The Provident lnstitutions.- New Critics and Converts.- Writing the Principles.- The Role of Ricardo’s Theory of Value.- The Theory of Value in the Firsl Edition.- The Reaction to Ricarao’sFirst Edition.- Changes in Ricardo’s Second Edition.- The Theory of Value in the Third Edition.- IX. Friendly Critics: Malthus and Ricardo on Political Economy.- Malthus’s Concept of Effective Demand and Its Influence Upon Ricardian Analysis.- Malthu’s Theory of Value.- The Role of Demand.- The Theory of Profits.- The Theory of Rent.- Summary of Malthus’s Principles.- Ricardo’s “Notes on Malthus”.- Malthus’s Measure of Value.- The Political Economy Club: Robert Torrens and the Decline of Ricardo’s Influence.- X. A new Career in Politics.- The Debale Over Ricardo in Parliament.- Ricardo’s Two Essays on Parliamentary Reform.- “Observations on Parliamentary Reform”.- “Defense of the Plan of Voting By Ballot”.- Ricardo on Religious Toleration.- Conclusions.- XI. Equivocation: The Effects of Machinery on the Demand for Labor.- Barton’s Observations.- “On Machinery”.- The Challenge to Ricardo’s Vision.- The Challenge to Ricardo’s Economic Methodology.- Concluding Remarks.- XII. The Search for a Measure of Absolute Value.- Ricardo’s Two Problems in Thinking About An Invariable Standard.- “Absolute Value and Exchangeable Value”.- The First Draft.- The Unfinished Draft.- Sraffa’s Interpretation.- XIII. A Critique of the Twentieth Century Perspective.- The Partial Eclipse of Ricardian Theory.- The Sraffa Edition on Ricardo.- The Reaction to Sraffa’s “Ricardo”.- Conclusion.- References.

John P. Henderson's The Life and Economics of David Ricardo represents the first comprehensive personal and intellectual biography of the brilliant and influential British economist. Employing the talents of both a biographer and an economist, the author examines Ricardo's early years, his Sephardic origins and his employment in the London financial markets, as well as his later work on money and banking, international trade, economic instability and the theory of rent and value. Henderson also provides a thorough investigation of Ricardo's relationships with Thomas Robert Malthus and other classical economists. The Life and Economics of David Ricardo will be of interest not only to historians of economic thought and students of economics, but also to any economist working in the Ricardian