ABSTRACT
I propose to demonstrate in this lecture the validity of Alfred Marshall's defence of Ricardo against the ‘marginalist’ reaction of the 1870s. In my view Marshall was wholly right as far as he went in his defence, but perhaps did not go far enough. For he stayed rather too much within a partial equilibrium framework, whereas Ricardo's economics reflect pre-eminently general equilibrium. By this I intend appreciation of the information conveying and signalling role of prices, the notion of alternative costs, the principle of maximizing net returns and market interaction of goods and services – in brief the theory of the coordination of decentralized economic activities.1
