David Ricardo  / Classical Champion of Free Trade/ 


      David Ricardo is one of history`s most influential economists. Born in England, Ricardo made a fortune on the London Stock Exchange. This wealth gave him the time to write and to serve in Parliament`s House of Commons. His most famous work, Principles of Political Economy and Taxation(1817), marked him as the greatest spokesman for classical economics since Adam   Smith.
       Ricardo is  especially famous in international economics for demonstrating the advantages of free trade. Free trade is  a policy in which tariffs and other barriers to trade between nations are removed. To prove his point, Ricardo developed a concept we now call the principle of comparative advantage. Comparative advantage enabled him to demonstrate that one nation might profitably inport goods from another even though the importing country could produce that item for less than the exporter.
      Ricardo`s explanation of comparative advantage went as follows.Portugal and England, both of whom produce wine and cloth, are considering the advantages of exchanging those products with one another.
    We can see, Ricardo continued, that even though Portugal can produce both wine and cloth more efficiently than England, it pays them to specialize in the production of wine and import English cloth.
    England will also benefit. By specializing in cloth, it will be able to obtain wine in exchange for 100 worker years of labor rather then 120.
   As a member of Parliament, Ricardo pressed the government to abandon its traditinal policy of protection.