DAVID RICARDO ON INVESTMENT

Abstract

The article examines the views of one of the founders of classical economics, David Ricardo, on the issues of investment, capital and profit. The need for this study is caused by the lack of a single definition of investment in the regulatory acts of investment legislation, as well as in the scientific community. Thus, there is a problem of regulatory regulation of one of the most important concepts of the economy. Given that the concepts of investment, capital, and capital investment are primarily economic categories, it seems quite reasonable to consider the emergence and development of these concepts in the retrospect of economic theories, in order to understand the essence of the phenomenon and finally solve the issue of its legal regulation. The scientific novelty of the study is that despite a large number of works on the work of David Ricardo «The Beginnings of Political Economy and Taxation», no special work was carried out on the contribution of the great economist to the theory of investment. Conclusions. The main achievements of Ricardo in the field of capital and investment include the author's definitions of capital, free capital, the creation of a theory of comparative advantages of trade, the division of capital into fixed and circulating capital depending on strength, as well as the description of the reasons that stimulate and hinder foreign investment.