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The Services Of Mr. Ricardo To The Science Of Political Economy
by
[Footnote 1: MR. J. R. MCCULLOCH in his Literature of Political Economy makes the following observations concerning DE QUINCEY’S ‘Dialogues of Three Templars on Political Economy’:–They are unequalled, perhaps, for brevity, pungency, and force. They not only bring the Ricardian theory of value into strong relief, but triumphantly repel, or rather annihilate, the objections urged against it by Malthus, in the pamphlet now referred to and his Political Economy, and by Say, and others. They may, indeed, be said to have exhausted the subject. ]
[Footnote 2: Not so however, let me say in passing, for three supposed instances of affected doubt; in all of which my doubts were, and are at this moment, very sincere and unaffected; and, in one of them at least, I am assured by those of whom I have since inquired that my reviewer is undoubtedly mistaken. As another point which, if left unnoticed, might affect something more important to myself than the credit of my taste or judgment,–let me inform my reviewer that, when he traces an incident which I have recorded most faithfully about a Malay–to a tale of Mr. Hogg’s, he makes me indebted to a book which I never saw. In saying this I mean no disrespect to Mr. Hogg; on the contrary, I am sorry that I have never seen it: for I have a great admiration of Mr. Hogg’s genius; and have had the honour of his personal acquaintance for the last ten years. ]
As the best consolation to myself for the lost opportunities with which I have here reproached myself,–and as the best means of doing honour to the memory of Mr. Ricardo,–I shall now endeavour to spread the knowledge of what he has performed in Political Economy. To do this in the plainest and most effectual manner, I shall abstain from introducing any opinions peculiar to myself, excepting only when they may be necessary for the defence of Mr. Ricardo against objections which have obtained currency from the celebrity of their authors–or in the few cases where they may be called for by the errors (as I suppose them to be) even of Mr. Ricardo.–In using this language, I do not fear to be taxed with arrogance: we of this day stand upon the shoulders of our predecessors; and that I am able to detect any errors in Mr. Ricardo–I owe, in most instances, to Mr. Ricardo himself.
X. Y. Z.