The English economist David Ricardo (1772-1823) was a founder of political economy. His economics armed reformers attacking the agricultural aristocracy's political, social, and economic privileges.

David Ricardo was born in London on April 19, 1772, the son of a Jewish merchant-banker émigré from Holland. Ricardo joined his father as a stockbroker at the age of 14. When he married a Quaker, his orthodox father cut him off. Ricardo became a Unitarian, and at 22, with a capital of £800 and support from the financial community, he became an independent stockbroker. At 42 he retired with a fortune of about £1 million and established himself as a landed proprietor.

Ricardo was an independent member of Parliament for the pocket borough of Portarlington from 1819 until his death. He supported a tax on capital to pay off the national debt; currency reform; abolition of the Corn Laws protecting British wheat; parliamentary, poor-law, legal, and military reform...