Books

Ricardo, David (1772-1823). On the principles of political economy, and taxation. xii, 538pp. London: John Murray, 1821. 231 x 144 mm. (uncut). Original boards, rebacked, corners worn, light rubbing and staining; preserved in quarter morocco drop-back box. Light toning, edges a bit frayed, but very good. From the library of Francis Place (1771-1854), founder of the modern birth-control movement, with his signature and bookplate on the front endpapers and manuscript notes on the rear flyleaf; a few pencil notes probably his in the margins; 19th-century newspaper clippings on relevant topics tipped to the recto and verso of the front free endpaper. Third edition. David Ricardo is one of the most important figures in the development of economic theory. He was one of the founders of the "Classical school" of economics, based on the idea that free markets can regulate themselves. He formalized the principles of the Classical system in his landmark Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817), which took the science of "political economy" to an unprecedented level of theoretical sophistication. Ricardo's work dominated economic thought throughout the nineteenth century. This copy of Ricardo's classic work is from the library of his friend Francis Place, author of Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population (1822), a work of great significance in economics, social history and population theory, and the founding document of the modern birth-control movement. "Though many preceded Francis Place in discussing the technique of contraception, he seems to have been the first to venture, at first alone and unaided, upon an organized attempt to educate the masses. Place holds, therefore, the same position in social education on contraception that Malthus holds in the history of general population theory... it was Place who first gave birth control a body of social theory" (Himes, Medical History of Contraception, pp. 212-13; emphasis ours). Place's Illustrations and Proofs was a direct response to Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), a copy of which Ricardo had sent him; Place in turn sent the manuscript of his book to Ricardo for comments, and Ricardo replied in a lengthy letter to Place dated 9 September 1821 (Ricardo, Works and Correspondence, vol. 9 [1973], pp. 49-57).