David Ricardo was born on April 18, 1772, in London, England. He was the third of seventeen children in a Sephardic Jewish family. His father was a successful stockbroker, and Ricardo followed in his footsteps, starting his career as a stockbroker at a young age. Despite lacking a formal education, Ricardo proved to be a shrewd businessman and quickly made a name for himself in the financial world.
In 1793, Ricardo married Priscilla Anne Wilkinson, a Quaker. The couple had eight children together. However, Ricardo's decision to marry outside of his faith caused a rift with his family, who disowned him due to his conversion to Unitarianism. Despite this, Ricardo remained dedicated to his new beliefs and continued to practice Unitarianism throughout his life.
David Ricardo was a prolific writer and thinker, best known for his groundbreaking economic theories. In 1817, he published his most famous work, "On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation." In this book, Ricardo introduced several important concepts that would shape the field of economics for decades to come.
One of Ricardo's most significant contributions was the law of diminishing returns, which he developed to explain the relationship between inputs and outputs in agricultural production. He also proposed the labor theory of value, which posited that the value of a good or service is determined by the amount of labor required to produce it. Additionally, Ricardo is credited with inventing the economic theory of competitive advantage, which explores the benefits of specialization in trade.
In addition to his work as an economist, David Ricardo was also involved in politics. In 1819, he was elected to the House of Commons as a member of the Liberal Party. During his time in Parliament, Ricardo championed free trade and economic reform, advocating for policies that would benefit the working class.
David Ricardo's influence on the field of economics cannot be overstated. Along with contemporaries like Thomas Malthus and Adam Smith, Ricardo is considered one of the founding fathers of classical economics. His theories on value, production, and trade revolutionized the way economists thought about the workings of the market.