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Article: How would David Ricardo have taught the principle of comparative advantage?
- Article from:
- Southern Economic Journal
- Article date:
- April 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Southern Economic Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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1. Introduction
Assume that David Ricardo's life had extended beyond the age of 51, that he became a professor of political economy in his later years, and was invited to lecture on comparative advantage. (l) Against all odds, he displays a remarkable intuition of future developments in economic theory and is able to use the standard tools and graphical techniques found in present-day economics textbooks. In his lecture, Ricardo recalls the numerical example contained in his Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (Ricardo 1951b, chapter 7) where cloth and wine are traded between England and Portugal. He reminds his audience that England's exports of cloth ...