John Lewis Ricardo (1812 – 2 August 1862) was a British businessman and politician.
Early life
Ricardo was born in London in 1812. He was the eldest son of financier Jacob Ricardo and nephew of the economist David Ricardo.[1]
Career
Following the death of his father in 1834, Ricardo abandoned his plans for a career in the British Army and, instead, took over his father's financial firm, in partnership with his uncle, Samson Ricardo.[1]
Ricardo was a leader of a group of businessmen who, in 1845, purchased the patents for the electric telegraph designed by Cooke and Wheatstone. Ricardo was Electric Telegraph's largest shareholder, and its executive chairman, for its first 12 years.[3] His goal was to build a network that would distribute breaking financial news to his own newsrooms adjacent to all British stock exchanges—an information monopoly that would be valuable to speculators and investors. However, when the established telegraph companies formed monopolistic cartels and raised prices to newspapers, Ricardo secretly switched sides and campaigned for their nationalization.[4]
Political career
In 1841 he was elected Member of Parliament for Stoke-on-Trent as a Liberal, serving until his death.[1] In the House, he was an advocate for free trade and was active in the repeal of the Navigation Acts in 1849.[5]
^Mather, Francis C. "The railways, the electric telegraph and public order during the Chartist period, 1837–48." History 38.132 (1953): 40–53.
^Roger Neil Barton, "The birth of telegraphic news in Britain," Media History (2010) 16#4, pp. 379–406
^Fetter, Frank Whitson. "The Influence of Economists in Parliament on British Legislation from Ricardo to John Stuart Mill", The Journal of Political Economy, 83 no.5 (1975) 1051–1064.
