Ricardo’s finances and Waterloo: legends by Samuelson and others lack historical evidence
通过档案和统计数据，驳斥了萨缪尔森等人关于李嘉图在滑铁卢战役后通过股票投机一夜暴富的传说，指出其财富是逐步积累的，并揭示了1815年贷款的真实利润及萨缪尔森指控的缺乏依据。
Abstract Paul Samuelson and others suggested that Ricardo (‘the richest economist in history’) made a life-changing coup on the Stock Exchange after the Battle of Waterloo (1815), but archives reveal that Ricardo amassed his fortune more gradually, often by small profit rates upon large investments, as a jobber on the Stock Exchange and a contractor for seven British Loans. The 1815 Loan generated exceptional profits for Ricardo, but not the million sterling mentioned in unreliable legends about Ricardo or Rothschild. Such legends neglected the stock price statistics, the suboptimal timing of Ricardo’s transactions in 1815 and the dominant role of the Baring-Angerstein consortium, which took a much larger part of the Loans than Ricardo’s consortium. Insufficient attention was also paid to the special year 1813, when Britain exceptionally launched not one, but two very profitable Loans. After his large 1813 profits, Ricardo started contemplating his retirement and bought Gatcombe Park in 1814. Samuelson neglected this and overestimated the influence of 1815 events. Moreover, Samuelson claimed that today Ricardo might be prosecuted for using unscrupulous market manipulation and inside information. Archives and statistics show that Samuelson’s allegations lack historical evidence.