ABSTRACT
It is well known that the realization of the famous editorial project of the Royal Economic Society (RES) to publish The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo (Ricardo,Works 1951-73)was delayed for a considerable time. One of the main reasons for delaywas the discovery of Ricardo’s letters to JamesMill in 1943. This forced the editor, Piero Sraffa, to alter the project radically and to postpone completion of the edition (see Sraffa’s ‘General Preface’ in Ricardo, Works I: ix-x).1 Another reason was Sraffa’s difficulties in composing the introductions. In this paper we deal with yet another obstacle which up till now is largely unknown. This concerns the role a then leading authority on Ricardo – JacobHarry Hollander (1871-1940), professor of economics at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and President of theAmerican EconomicAssociation in 1921 – played in the early phase of the project. Hollander effectively obstructed the progress of the edition for a considerable time. How and why he did so requires an intricate story to be unravelled. Our paper uses hitherto unpublished material, especially from Piero Sraffa’s
Papers, Trinity College, Cambridge, John Maynard Keynes’s Papers, King’s College, Cambridge, and Jacob Harry Hollander’s Papers.2 The latter are kept in the Milton S. Eisenhower Library (Special Collections) of the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore (USA). However, it should be pointed out that, curiously, there are no letters from Keynes or Sraffa in Hollander’s correspondence. Moreover, with respect toHollander’s correspondencewith FrankRicardo, a greatgrandson of David Ricardo, only the part relating to the years prior to 1930 has been preserved. It is not clear when and by whom these parts of Hollander’s correspondence were removed.3 Since in these cases we do not have access to the originals, all citations refer to the copies or drafts of letters kept by the senders.4
