Many of the problems of globalization confronting us today—-including finding the right balance between economic growth, technological advance, and international trade, and human welfare—-also troubled earlier generations. David Ricardos Principles of Political Economy and Taxation represents an important early attempt to illuminate the problem and to offer viable policy solutions.
The book, like modern "principles of economics" textbooks, exposes readers to rigorous economic thinking and deductive reasoning, but does not contain advanced mathematics. Principles heavily influenced socialist thinkers such as Karl Marx as well as classical economists like John Stuart Mill and John R. McCulloch. In the economics of international trade, the book continues to be a major influence.