David Ricardo

Born in 1772 to a Sephardic stockbroker in London, Ricardo broke with his family at 21 when he eloped with a Quaker and converted to Unitarianism. He made his wealth financing government borrowing, retired to Gloucestershire, and entered Parliament as MP for Portarlington. There he fought the Corn Laws and protectionism, convinced that free trade lowered prices and lifted nations. He wrote his first economics article at 37, fixing gaps in Adam Smith's labor theory and developing his own frameworks for rent, wages, and profits. His theory of comparative advantage - that even weaker economies gain from trade by specializing where they're least inefficient - became the cornerstone argument against mercantilism. He died at 51 in 1823 from an ear infection that turned septic, leaving a fortune and a doctrine that would eventually become British policy.