A New Career in Politics

Abstract

Ricardo began his third career when he entered Parliament on February 26, 1819 after retiring from the Stock Exchange and having completed his principal works in political economy. He died prematurely four and a half years later in September 1823, having delivered 106 recorded speeches in the House of Commons, 11 more on various other occasions, and having given evidence on the usury laws and on the resumption of specie payment by the Bank of England.1 Much of his contribution and influence naturally concerned political economic subjects, the most notable being his arguments against the Corn Law.2 But he also developed strong views about representative government and democratic reform, which are the subject of this chapter. In the year before entering Parliament Ricardo spent a year in the study of politics, carried on an extensive correspondence with Hutches Trower in particular on the subject, and wrote two papers on the reform of Parliament, “Observations on Parliamentary Reform” and “Defence of the Plan of Voting by Ballot.” These were first published posthumously in 1824. A third paper on reform written in 1819 is lost.