On Foreign Trade — David Ricardo
The Langenderfer Library: Classics in Tax, Economics, and AccountingShow Notes
Why do nations gain from trading with one another—even when one country can produce everything more efficiently? In “On Foreign Trade,” David Ricardo develops the argument that would become comparative advantage, explaining how specialization and exchange can enlarge the quantity and variety of goods available without necessarily raising their value or the general rate of profit.
Moving from wine and cloth to wages, capital, prices, and the distribution of labor, Ricardo shows how free commerce connects individual advantage with broader social benefit. This foundational chapter from On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation remains essential to modern debates over trade, productivity, and global interdependence. .
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