The article offers the first interpretation of David Ricardo's famous numerical example fully consistent with the primary source. He claims that the sole purpose of the four figures was to illustrate that the relative value of goods manufactured in different countries is not determined by the respective quantities of labor devoted to their production. Little was expected in this regard from young David, who was born in London and had children. Father Abraham Israel Ricardo was a businessman and stockbroker who moved from Amsterdam to London. David Ricardo's grandfather and uncles were also involved in the Abstract. This article examines David Ricardo's trade theory, which emphasizes that if protection is removed, resources. they would be expected to move away from high cost products and towards low cost products and. It was on this point – rather than on the basis of a general hostility towards classical economics – that John Maynard Keynes parted ways with Smith and his intellectual successors. According to Keynes, 1936 1973: 293, the key to escaping a deflationary wage-price spiral and/or persistent demand deficit is not to focus on: