ABSTRACT
McCulloch's views on the agricultural sector have a complexity and a variety which commentators have normally ignored. Unlike Ricardo, he did not ignore institutional considerations but paid a good deal of attention to them; and in his presentation of a case against the Corn Laws he displayed a variety and a resource and produced a better balanced and more comprehensive analysis than virtually any writer. In all this he was very Scottish in his approach: in his treatment of agriculture as in other matters he was firmly in the tradition of Smith and Hume with their mixture of fact and analysis, theoretical and institutional considerations. But he also added to the theory with his analysis of improvements: and although it would be idle to pretend that his performance was flawless, it was none the less not inconsiderable taken as a whole.
