If we were left to ourselves, unfettered by legislative enactments, we should gradually withdraw our capital from the cultivation of such lands, and import the produce which is at present raised upon them.

Shiozawa's result saves Mankiw from his slip. Ricardian equivalence
Another idea associated with Ricardo is Ricardian equivalence an argument suggesting that in some circumstances a government's choice of how to pay for its spending (i. The first chapter serves merely as an introduction to a long book that debates an extended series of comparisons and which contrasts the various points of view while outlining Ricardo's own reasoning.

g. He was often credited with systematizing economics and was one of the most influential of the classical economists along with Thomas Malthus Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill.