Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations in 1799, he chose to divide
his time between studying and writing about political economy
and increasing his own personal wealth.
Ricardo’s place in the history of economics was assured by his
achievement in constructing an abstract model of how
capitalism worked. He built an analytic “system” using
deductive reasoning that characterizes economic theorizing to
the present day. The three critical principles in Ricardo’s
system were (1) the theory of rent, (2) Thomas Malthus’s
population principle, and (3) the wages-fund doctrine. Ricardo
published The Principles of Political Economy and Taxation in
1817, and the work dominated Classical economics for the
following half-century.
Ricardo also contributed the concept of comparative
advantage to the study of international trade. Ricardo’s
theories regarding the gains from trade had some influence on
the repeal of the British Corn Laws in 1846—tariffs on the
importation of grains into Great Britain—and the subsequent
transformation of that country during the nineteenth century
from a country of high tariffs to one of completely free trade.