Constructing a Myth that Ricardo Was the Father of the Ricardian Model of International Trade: A Reconsideration of Torrens f Principles of Comparative Advantage and Gain-from-trade

Historians of economic thought have often pointed out that Ricardo fs famous England-Portugal model differs from the gRicardian model h presented in modern international economics textbooks. This paper argues that the erroneous belief that David Ricardo was the father of the Ricardian model might have arisen from Robert Torrens f own explanations of comparative advantage and his repeated claims. The principle of comparative advantage put forward by Torrens has much in common with the modern Ricardian model. In the early twentieth century, distinguished writers of international trade theory devoted their attention to a great controversy among famous economists in the authoritative The Economic Journal about who should be considered the true father of comparative advantage, Ricardo or Torrens, and concluded that Ricardo, in his text, proposed the same principles of comparative advantage as Torrens had presented.