ABSTRACT
The declared objectives of the book are: (i) to reconstruct the development of Ricardo’s theory of value, distribution and accumulation; and (ii) to comment on the interpretative literature, focusing attention on the contributions subsequent to the publication of The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo (eleven volumes), edited by Piero Sraffa (with the collaboration of Maurice H.Dobb) (cf. p. xi). The author indicates that the book had a gestation period of over ten years (cf. p. xiv). During that period Peach contributed some papers to the debate amongst advocates of alternative interpretations of Ricardo in which he anticipated some of the material contained in the book. This concerns his questioning of Sraffa’s ‘corn ratio’ interpretation of Ricardo’s early theory of profits and his rejection of Samuel Hollander’s ‘revisionist’ view of Ricardo.
