ABSTRACT
Chapter 2 deals with David Ricardo’s remarkable capacity to ‘elucidate economic principles’ in the face of a ‘labyrinth of difficulties’. Ricardo was not a purely abstract theorist who lacked any realism. His method of analysis is scrutinised and the role of numerical examples to illustrate important findings explained. The theory of value and distribution constitutes the core piece of Ricardo’s analysis. His consecutive attempts to elaborate a coherent theory are reported and it is stressed that to Ricardo the labour theory of value was a makeshift solution to a problem he did not manage to master completely.
