Henry Higgs (4 March 1864 – 21 May 1940) was a British

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

, economist, and historian of economic thought. Higgs joined the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

as a Lower Division Clerk in 1882. From there he moved to the Postmaster General's Office in 1884 when he also began taking courses at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

/ He received an

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

degree at the latter in 1890. He went to

Treasury A treasury is either *A government department related to finance and taxation, a finance ministry. *A place or location where treasure, such as currency or precious items are kept. These can be state or royal property, church treasure or in p ...

in 1899. Following the end of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

in June 1902, Higgs travelled to

Natal NATAL or Natal may refer to: Places * Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, a city in Brazil * Natal, South Africa (disambiguation), a region in South Africa ** Natalia Republic, a former country (1839–1843) ** Colony of Natal, a former British colony ( ...

to examine the working of the Civil Service of that colony on behalf of its government. He stayed in South Africa for six months from October 1902 until late Spring 1903. He was appointed Private Secretary of then-Prime Minister

Henry Campbell-Bannerman Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (né Campbell; 7 September 183622 April 1908) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. He served as the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1905 to 1908 and leader of the Liberal Party from 1899 to 190 ...

in 1905 serving for three years before returning to Treasury in 1908. Higgs was a founding member of the British Economic Association in 1890 and contributed to securing a

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...

for it in 1902, which was followed by a name change to the

Royal Economic Society The Royal Economic Society (RES) is a professional association that promotes the study of economic science in academia, government service, banking, industry, and public affairs. Originally established in 1890 as the British Economic Association, ...

. He was Secretary for the organization from 1892 to 1905 and assistant editor of ''

The Economic Journal ''The Economic Journal'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics published on behalf of the Royal Economic Society by Oxford University Press. The journal was established in 1891 and publishes papers from all areas of economics.The edito ...

'' from 1896 to 1905 during the tenure of F.Y. Edgeworth as editor. Among other subjects, Higgs wrote on the economist

Richard Cantillon Richard Cantillon (; 1680s – ) was an Irish-French economist and author of '' Essai Sur La Nature Du Commerce En Général'' (''Essay on the Nature of Trade in General''), a book considered by William Stanley Jevons to be the "cradle of p ...

and edited what became the standard version of Cantillon's '' Essai sur la nature du commerce en général''. He also wrote on the

Physiocrats Physiocracy (; from the Greek for "government of nature") is an economic theory developed by a group of 18th-century Age of Enlightenment French economists who believed that the wealth of nations derived solely from the value of "land agricultur ...

, the financial system of the United Kingdom, and financial reform. He also compiled a historical bibliography on economic thought. J.M. Keynes in his obituary of Higgs (The Economic Journal, 1940) explains that "the unfinished volumes of the Economic Bibliography, were based on . S.Foxwell's collections, which Higgs edited for a Joint Committee, under the chairmanship of W.R. Scott, representing the British Academy, the RES and the Goldsmiths' Company, each of which contributed to the substantial expense. This was a laborious work to which Higgs gave the bulk of his time in his last years, but it was work done at a time when he was no longer reliable in the small, often unimportant, points of accurate detail which are nevertheless the essence of such a project. It was a task, not really suited to his gifts, undertaken out of loyalty and affection to Foxwell with the pious oblject of harvesting some part of the labours and scholarship which Foxwell's own temperament never allowed him to garner himself." Higgs was an early supporter of and contributor to ''Dictionary of Political Economy'',

Inglis Palgrave Sir Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave (11 June 1827 – 25 January 1919) was a British economist. Early life Robert Harry Inglis Palgrave was born on 11 June 1827. He was the son of Francis Palgrave (born Cohen) and his wife Elizabeth Turner, ...

, ed., (1894, ..., 1908), to which he contributed 19 entries. He edited the only edition of the ''Dictionary'' not edited by Palgrave, adding Palgrave's name to the title and penning 40 more entries .• Murray Milgate, 1987. "Higgs, Henry (1864–1940)," in ''The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', v. 2, pp. 263–64.
• Clara E. Collet and Charles K. Webster, 1940. "Obituary: Henry Higgs," ''Economic Journal'', 50(200) pp
546
572. Includes notes of

J.M. Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in m ...

, pp. 555–58.

Notes

Further reading