“When she is dying, she actually, you know, people ask her, you know, you were so famous. You were the most famous author in the English language for a time. Do you want to write an autobiography? And she's like, no, but I would like to dictate some projects I didn't get to. And the first project she dictates basically is that somebody should think about the potato as a national food for Ireland. And she suggests that people look at David Ricardo's letters to her as a starting point.”
Odd Lots · Money & Markets · October 2026
Smialek on the novelist and economist Maria Edgeworth, a committed free trader until the Irish potato famines hit her own neighborhood. Edgeworth had argued with David Ricardo by letter about whether Ireland should specialize in potatoes, and later came to think she had been wrong.
Transcript
…never actually get this from Ricardo in any of his academic texts. It does not become part of his sort of, you know, legacy. Like he has a very simplistic view on trade. And that is what sort of becomes part of the canon. But we know that he complicated that because he didn't did in these letters.
But he was also right when it came to potatoes because Ireland then had a very famous potato famine.
…the economy back in action. She sort of comes around to an early version of what we would today call Keynesianism. Keynesianism obviously won't be developed for another 80 years. But yes. And so she really does change her views during the potato famine. And I think she, in particular, reflects on this conversation with Ricardo and thinks that she was wrong. In a very interesting turn of events, when she is dying, she actually, you know, people ask her, you know, you were so famous. You were the most famous author in the English language for a time. Do you want to write an autobiography? And she's like, no, but I would like to dictate some projects I didn't get to. And the first project she dictates basically is that somebody should think about the potato as a national food for Ireland. And she suggests that people look at David Ricardo's letters to her as a starting point.
Can you explain, like, what was it about her story? Why was she so popular? Like, what was it about them in general? Yeah, because again,
if you read The Cherry Orchard, to be completely honest, I know it's for kids in the early 1800s, but not that impressed, not that compelling.
So some of her children's literature, The Cherry Orchard, I will agree with you, not a joy to read. Some of her children's literature is more engaging and people found it very fun. Actually, Queen Victoria, when she was a child, used to try and write in the style of Maria Edgeworth because she…
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