Principles of Political Economy and Taxation

Principles of Political Economy and Taxation is a book by David Ricardo first published 1817. It is notable for the first explication of comparative advantage.

Notable Passages

An overture for free trade:

"Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and labor to such employments as are most beneficial to each. This pursuit of individual advantage is admirably connected with the universal good of the whole. By stimulating industry, by rewarding ingenuity, and by using most efficaciously the peculiar powers bestowed by nature, it distributes labor most effectively and most economically: while by increasing the general mass of productions, it diffuses general benefit, and binds together, by one common tie of interest and intercourse, the universal society of nations throughout the civilized world. It is this principle which determines that wine shall be made in France and Portugal, that corn shall be grown in America and Poland, and that hardware and other goods shall be manufactured in England." - David Ricardo

Links

• Principles of Political Economy and Taxation by David Ricardo