James Wilson (UK politician)

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James Wilson (UK politician)

James Wilson (June 3, 1805 – August 11, 1860) was a Scottish

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
hat maker, politician and economist, as well as the founder of The Economist
The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international relations publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in London....
and the modern Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered Bank is a United Kingdom bank headquartered in London with operations in more than seventy countries. It operates a network of over 1,700 branches and outlets and employs 73,000 people....
.

on was born in Hawick

Hawick

Hawick is a town in the Scottish Borders in the south east of Scotland. It is best-known for its annual Common Riding.It is one of the farthest towns from the sea in Scotland, in the heart of Teviotdale and the largest town in the former county of Roxburghshire....
in the Borders

Scottish Borders

The Scottish Borders , often referred to simply as the Borders, is one of 32 local government Council areas of Scotland of Scotland. It is bordered by Dumfries and Galloway in the west, South Lanarkshire and West Lothian in the north west, City of Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian to the north; and the Metropolitan and non-metropolit...
. A successful disciplined autodidact scholar from a Quaker family, he was destined to be a schoolmaster

Schoolmaster

A schoolmaster, or simply master, once referred to a male school teacher. This usage survives in United Kingdom public school , but is generally obsolete elsewhere....
but hated it so much that he "would rather to be the most menial servant in [his] father's mill".

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James Wilson (June 3, 1805 – August 11, 1860) was a Scottish

Scotland

Standard Chartered Bank

Early life

Wilson was born in Hawick

Hawick

Scottish Borders

Schoolmaster

Faculty of Advocates

The Faculty of Advocates is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary....
, against his family religion, he decided to be schooled in economics

Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
. So at the age of 16, he became an apprentice in a hat factory. Later, his father then bought the business for him and his elder brother, William. They left Scotland and moved to London

London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, England

England

Pound sterling

----The pound sterling , subdivided into 100 pence , is the currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown dependency and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and British Antarctic Territory....
2,000 each (£130,000 in 2005 pounds).

The entrepreneur in London

The brothers established a manufacturing factory that they dissolved it in 1831. Wilson continued in the same line of business with much success (his net worth

Net worth

In business, net worth is the total assets minus total outside liability of an individual or a company . For a company, this is called shareholders' equity and may be referred to as book value....
was £25,000 in 1837, or £1,630,000 in 2005 pounds). In January 1832, he married Elizabeth Preston of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. They had six daughters and Eliza, the eldest, married Walter Bagehot

Walter Bagehot

Walter Bagehot, pronounced BAD-jit, , was a British businessman, essayist, and journalism who wrote extensively about literature, government, and economics affairs....
. During the economic crisis of 1837, he lost most of his wealth when the price of indigo

Indigo

Indigo is the color on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nanometre in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet . Although traditionally considered one of seven divisions of the optical spectrum, modern color scientists do not usually recognize indigo as a separate division and generally classify wavelengths shorter...
fell. By 1839 he sold most of his property and avoided bankruptcy

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay its creditors. Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against a debtor in an effort to recoup a portion of what they are owed or initiate a restructuring....
. However, in 1853 he founded The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China

Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China

The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China was a bank founded in London in 1851/1853 by James Wilson following the grant of a Royal Charter from Victoria of the United Kingdom....
, which later merged with the Standard Bank of British South Africa to form Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered Bank

The Editor

Wilson was generally opposed to privileging the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the State religion Christianity Ecclesia in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches....
, the secret ballot

Secret ballot

The secret ballot is a voting method in which a voter's choices are confidential. The key aim is to ensure the voter records a sincere choice by forestalling attempts to influence the voter by intimidation or bribery....
when it was proposed in 1853, and the Corn Laws

Corn Laws

The Corn Laws were import tariffs designed to Protectionism domestic British corn prices against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846....
. He wrote a pamphlet

Pamphlet

A pamphlet is an unbound booklet . It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths , or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and stapled at the crease to make a simple book....
titled Influences of the Corn Laws, as affection all classes of the comminity, and particularly the landed interests. It slowly received positive feedback and Wilson's fame had grown. He then went on writing on currency

Currency

A currency is a Medium of exchange, facilitating the trade of goods and/or Service s. It is coins and paper bills used as money. It is one form of money, where money is anything that serves as a medium of exchange, a store of value, and a standard of value....
, and especially The Revenue; or, What should the Chancellor do?. He started to write for newspapers, including the Manchester Guardian.

In 1843 he established The Economist
The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international relations publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in London....
as a newspaper to campaign for free trade

Free trade

Free trade is a type of trade policy that allows traders to act and transact without coercive interference from government. Thus, the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade, with goods and services produced according to the law of comparative advantage....
, and acted as Chief editor and sole proprietor for sixteen years. The Economist is still published today, now with a weekly circulation of over 1.2 million globally.

Political Life

He entered the Parliament of the United Kingdom

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislature in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories....
as a Liberal

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major British political parties from the early 19th century until the rise of the Labour Party in the 1920s, and a third party of varying strength and importance up to 1988, when it merged with the Social Democratic Party to form a new party which would become known as the Liberal Democrats....
member of the Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the British monarchy and the House of Lords ....
for Westbury

Westbury (UK Parliament constituency)

Westbury is a constituency represented in the British House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Since 1885, it has been a county constituency, electing one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election; it has returned a Conservative Party MP at every election since 1924....
, Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a Ceremonial counties of England in the South West England of England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire....
in 1847. For his economic experience he was swiftly appointed as Secretary of the Board of Control, which ran the affairs of India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
, and served for four years. In the Aberdeen coalition government he was Financial Secretary to the Treasury

Financial Secretary to the Treasury

Financial Secretary to the Treasury is a junior Ministerial post in the HM Treasury. It is the 4th most significant Ministerial role within the Treasury after the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and the Paymaster General....
and Vice-President of the Board of Trade

Vice-President of the Board of Trade

The office of Vice-President of the Board of Trade was a junior ministerial position in the government of the United Kingdom. The office was created in 1786 and abolished in 1867....
. In August 1859 he resigned his seat to sit as the financial member of the Council of India

Council of India

The Council of India was the advisory council to the Governor-General of India for the period of British rule in India between 1773 and 1920....
, but was in office only a year before he died: he refused to leave the stifling heat of Calcutta in the summer, and contracted dysentery

Dysentery

Dysentery is a disorder of the digestive system that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the feces. If untreated, Dysentery can be fatal....
.

He was made a Privy Counsellor

Privy Council of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council is a body of advisors to the British monarchy. Its members are largely senior politicians, who were or are members of either the House of Commons of the United Kingdom or House of Lords....
in 1859.