In Parliament
On 30 September 1814 James Mill in a letter flattered Ricardo that he “might be of great use to a favourite science, and to a most important department of practical politics, which altogether depend upon such a science”.
This, Mill added, “ought to be sufficient motive with him, to improve every hour and every moment, nay to place himself in that situation in which his tongue, as well as his pen might be of use” (Works VI: 138). With the Principles Ricardo had attended to his duty with his “pen”. When in 1819 he became a Member of Parliament by buying the seat of Portarlington, Ireland, the time had come for his “tongue” to follow suit. Ricardo participated in several debates, mostly on monetary, financial and currency matters, but also, in 1821-22, in committees dealing with agricultural distress. He spoke up on behalf of civic rights, secret ballots, the equal treatment of religions, penal reform and the abolition of the haggling over seats in the House of Commons (see Milgate and Stimson 1991; King 2013: ch. 6). His suggestion in 1819 to repay the whole of the national debt that had accumulated during the Napoleonic wars in a few years by means of a lump-sum tax on property became famous. He argued that such a tax would not diminish total wealth and would also not unduly hurt the propertied classes because the capital value of the current taxes levied on them to cover interest and amortization of the national debt was probably in the range of the property tax suggested. It was not implemented. In 1821 Ricardo became a member of the influential “Political Economy Club” in London and participated in several of its meetings.After the publication of the first edition of the Principles, Ricardo was predominantly concerned with the problems of value and distribution, the measure of value, and the machinery question. The second edition, published in 1819, brought substantial changes in the chapter “On Value”. For a detailed account of these changes as well as the changes from the second to the third edition, published in 1821, see Sraffa’s “Introduction” in Works (Sraffa 1951: xiii-lxii). In the third edition, the most important change concerned the question of whether technical change was always a universal blessing or whether there were types of it that were harmful especially to the labouring class. Ricardo now recanted his earlier optimistic view as to the swift compensation of labour displacement due to the introduction of improved machinery: in the case of technical progress that reduced the gross produce, the resulting unemployment may persist and exert a lasting downward pressure on wages.