# David Ricardo — Unto This Last character guide

> David Ricardo in Unto This Last by John Ruskin.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Ricardo, Ricardo

**First appearance:** 0002-unto-this-last

## Snapshot

A classical economist whose theories of value and wealth the narrator cites only to expose how neatly they sidestep the question of who gets what.

## Who they are

Ricardo functions in the text as the technical authority behind the popular economist's confidence — the man whose laws of value and distribution are treated as settled science. The friction is that his abstractions describe how wealth moves while leaving untouched the moral duty to direct it, a gap the narrator finds both curious and damning. He matters because the book's case depends on showing that the most rigorous economics of the day is also the most evasive.

## Relationships

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/unto_this_last_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

The narrator directly refutes Ricardo's labor theory of value, seeking to dismantle its influence.

### [John Stuart Mill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/unto_this_last_se/characters/john_stuart_mill)

_professional_

Ricardo and Mill are linked as intellectual predecessors and successors in classical political economy.

### [Unknown Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/unto_this_last_se/characters/unknown_narrator)

_psychological_

The narrator challenges Ricardo's classical economic principles, treating them as flawed doctrines to be overturned.

## In the story

### [Unto This Last](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/unto_this_last_se/chapters/unto-this-last)

Mentioned as another key figure in classical economics whose ideas are challenged in the chapter.

### [IV: Ad Valorem](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/unto_this_last_se/chapters/iv-ad-valorem)

Mentioned as the source of Mill's error in distinguishing direct and indirect service.

### [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/unto_this_last_se/chapters/endnotes)

Mentioned in relation to the labor theory of value; Ruskin argues Ricardo's definition is incomplete.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/unto_this_last_se/characters/david_ricardo
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/unto_this_last_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/unto_this_last_se/characters