Say's Law, Theory of the Rate of Interest and Capacity Utilization in Ricardo(*)

I.1. Can one find in the classical authors solid reasons in support of the thesis that growth is determined by the reinvestment of full-utilization savings, or, that recessions are not due to deficiencies of aggregate demand, or again, that 'general gluts' are impossible; in other words, in support of Say's Law? This is the question motivating the present paper; the inquiry here will be ho wever limited, mostly, to asking why Ricardo accepted Say's Law. The dominant opinion appears to be that Ricardo, just like his great opponent Malthus, simply