Sir James Steuart, 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees and
7th Baronet of Coltness (; 21 October 1712 – 26 November 1780), also known as Sir James Steuart Denham and Sir James Denham Steuart, was a prominent Scottish
Jacobite and author of "probably the first systematic treatise written in English about economics"
and the first book in English with 'political economy' in the title.
He assumed the surname of Denham late in life; he inherited his cousin's baronetcy of Coltness in 1773.
Early life
He was one of 12 children of
Sir James Steuart,
Solicitor General for Scotland
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, insignia = Crest of the Kingdom of Scotland.svg
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, incumbent = Ruth Charteris KC
, incumbentsince = 22 June 2021
, department = Crown Office and ...
under
Queen Anne and
George I George I or 1 may refer to:
People
* Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631)
* George I of Constantinople (d. 686)
* George I of Antioch (d. 790)
* George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9)
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, and was born in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...
. His mother was Anne Dalrymple, daughter of
Lord North Berwick, the
Lord President of the Court of Session
The Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General is the most senior judge in Scotland, the head of the judiciary, and the presiding judge of the College of Justice, the Court of Session, and the High Court of Justiciary. The L ...
. After graduating from the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
he was admitted to the Scottish bar at the age of twenty-four.
He then spent some years on the Continent, and while in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
entered into relations with the Young Pretender,
Charles Edward Stuart. He was in Edinburgh in 1745, and so compromised himself that, after the
battle of Culloden, he found it necessary to return to the Continent, where he remained until 1763. It was not until 1771 that he was fully
pardoned for any complicity he may have had in the rebellion. He died at his family seat,
Coltness
Coltness is the largest suburb of the town of Wishaw, North Lanarkshire, Scotland. The 2001 census indicated a population of almost 4,500.
Lying to the north east of Wishaw town centre, Coltness is an area of mainly local authority built h ...
, in
Lanarkshire
Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland.
Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotl ...
.
He married Lady Frances Wemyss (1722–1789), younger sister of
David Wemyss, Lord Elcho
David Wemyss, Lord Elcho and ''de jure'' 6th Earl of Wemyss (12 August 172129 April 1787), was a Scottish peer and Jacobite, attainted for his part in the 1745 Rising and deprived of titles and estates.
One of the few Jacobites excluded fro ...
, who played a prominent role in the
1745 Rising.
Their son,
Sir James Steuart Denham (1744-1839), edited his father's works, was a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
, and Colonel of the
Scots Greys
The Royal Scots Greys was a cavalry regiment of the British Army from 1707 until 1971, when they amalgamated with the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales's Dragoon Guards) to form the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.
The regiment's history began in 167 ...
. He ended his career as a
General
A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry.
In some usages the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED ...
and lived to be ninety-five; on his death, both baronetcies went to a cousin who died in 1851, since when they have been dormant.
Their daughter Agnes married
Henry Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan
Henry David Erskine, 10th Earl of Buchan FRS (17 April 1710 – 1 December 1767), styled Lord Auchterhouse until 1745, was a Scottish peer.
Buchan was the eldest surviving son of David Erskine, 9th Earl of Buchan, by Frances, daughter of Henry ...
.
Family
Steuart was descended from another Sir James Stewart, knight, an Edinburgh merchant and staunch Presbyterian, who supported
Charles II in the British
Civil Wars
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
of 1642-1660 and who died in 1681, having made enough money to purchase landed estates for his sons; three of those sons were prominent enough to have their families receive the title of
Baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
after the
Glorious Revolution of 1688. They were: Sir Thomas Steuart of Coltness, the first son; Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees,
Lord Advocate
His Majesty's Advocate, known as the Lord Advocate ( gd, Morair Tagraidh, sco, Laird Advocat), is the chief legal officer of the Scottish Government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters that fall within the devolved p ...
, the fourth son; Sir Robert Steuart of Allandale, the youngest of the seven sons. The Lord Advocate, Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees, was his grandfather; his father, also
Sir James Steuart, was the eldest son of the Lord Advocate, and rose to be
Solicitor General for Scotland
, body =
, insignia = Crest of the Kingdom of Scotland.svg
, insigniasize = 110px
, image = File:Official Portrait of Ruth Charteris QC.png
, incumbent = Ruth Charteris KC
, incumbentsince = 22 June 2021
, department = Crown Office and ...
.
Titles
The 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees, the subject of this article, inherited his baronetcy and estates at the age of fourteen. He eventually acquired much of the possession of his cousins, the senior line of Steuarts. Sir Thomas Steuart of Coltness, had married twice: to Margaret Elliot, his step-mother's daughter, and then to Susan Denham, the sister of Sir
William Denham
William Mortimer Clarence Denham (August 1888 – 21 September 1969) was a New Zealand politician of the Labour Party.
Biography Early life and career
Denham was born in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, in August 1888, and was educated bo ...
, 1st Baronet of Westshield,
Master of the Mint
Master of the Mint is a title within the Royal Mint given to the most senior person responsible for its operation. It was an important office in the governments of Scotland and England, and later Great Britain and then the United Kingdom, between ...
for Scotland, and had fourteen sons by them. His eldest son had sold the ''estate'' and mansion (but not the title) of Coltness to 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees' father, in 1712. The 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees is, therefore, often called of Coltness, since it was his house.
The 3rd Baronet of Goodtrees, however, eventually sold the estate of Goodtrees after he returned from France. By that time, the last surviving son of Sir Thomas Steuart had inherited the
Coltness baronetcy from his father as well as the property and
baronetcy of Denham of Westshield through his mother, styling himself
Sir Archibald Steuart Denham, Baronet. When Sir Archibald died, in 1773, the baronetcy of Coltness, and the Steuart property, passed to Sir James Steuart; the Denham title and property passed to the last heir of the Denhams, Sir Archibald's half-nephew on his mother's side, who took the style of
Sir William Lockhart Denham. When he died, three years later, in 1776, the Denham baronetcy became extinct; he also left his property, including the estate of Westshield, to Sir James Steuart, who then assumed the name of Denham, although he was not descended from.
For the last four years of his life, therefore, he was Sir James Steuart Denham, Baronet, of Coltness and Westshield. His major book and his posthumous collected works were published as by Sir James Steuart; economic literature also calls him Sir James Steuart Denham.
Works
In 1767 Steuart published ''An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Economy'',
the first book by a Scottish economist with '
political economy
Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...
' in the title, explaining usage of the term as that:
ust as UST or Ust may refer to:
Organizations
* UST (company), American digital technology company
* Equatorial Guinea Workers' Union
* Union of Trade Unions of Chad (Union des Syndicats du Tchad)
* United States Television Manufacturing Corp.
* UST Grow ...
economy in general sthe art of providing for all the wants of a family, o the science of political economyseeks to secure a certain fund of subsistence for all the inhabitants, to obviate every circumstance which may render it precarious; to provide every thing necessary for supplying the wants of the society, and to employ the inhabitants ... in such manner as naturally to create reciprocal relations and dependencies between them, so as to supply one another with reciprocal wants.
The book was the most complete and systematic survey of the science from the point of view of moderate
mercantilism which had appeared in England and indeed the first full-fledged economics
treatise
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject and its conclusions." Tre ...
to appear anywhere. Also the German philosopher
Hegel recognized that book and wrote a comment about it in the year 1799. Although often regarded as part of the
Scottish Enlightenment which produced
David Hume
David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) – 25 August 1776) Cranston, Maurice, and Thomas Edmund Jessop. 2020 999br>David Hume" ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 18 May 2020. was a Scottish Enlightenment phil ...
and
Adam Smith, Steuart's economics hark back to the earlier Mercantilist era.
Mercantilism was the school of thought that held that a positive balance of trade was of primary importance for any nation and required a ban on the export of gold and silver. This theory led to high protective
tariff
A tariff is a tax imposed by the government of a country or by a supranational union on imports or exports of goods. Besides being a source of revenue for the government, import duties can also be a form of regulation of foreign trade and pol ...
s to maximize the use of domestic resources, colonial expansion and exclusivity of trade with those colonies. British attempts to follow the mercantilist ideas led to the four
Anglo-Dutch navigation wars and the American colonials wars of
1776-1781 and
1812. Additionally in 1815, Britain adopted the high tariff, called the
corn laws
The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. They wer ...
on all imported wheat at the suggestion of mercantilist advisors. Debate over the corn laws would be harsh and would dominate the political discussion and occupy all British governments until the corn laws were repealed in 1846.
At the level of any individual sales transaction, mercantilism held that profit was developed at the point of the sale. Steuart held that profit was a mere "surcharge" upon alienation (sale) of the commodity. Steuart was not a pure mercantilist, however, he believed in a "scientific form of mercantilism." Steuart held that all profit arose from the seller "overcharging" the buyer in any single sales transaction. However, Steuart did allow that the "profit" obtained through exchange would "fluctuate" with the rise and/or fall in demand. Still like all good mercantilists, Steuart's eye remained on the exchange as the creator of profit and he recognized no value in a commodity before the sale.
Steuart was one of the last representatives of the mercantilist school of economic thought.
[See biographical note in the ''Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 31'' (International Publishers: New York, 1989) p. 605.]
Although the work appears to have been well received its impact was overshadowed by Smith's ''
Wealth of Nations
''An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations'', generally referred to by its shortened title ''The Wealth of Nations'', is the ''magnum opus'' of the Scottish economist and moral philosopher Adam Smith. First published in 1 ...
'' that was published only nine years later.
Adam Smith never quotes or mentions Steuart's book, although he was acquainted with him. Moreover, the attacks on
Mercantilism in the Wealth of Nations appear to have been mainly directed against Steuart. As Smith appears to have thought that Steuart's conversation was better than his book, he probably wished to keep clear of controversy with him.
Steuart's book was received much more favourably a century later by the members of the
Historical school of economics.
Bibliography
*''The Works, Political, Metaphysical and Chronological, of the late Sir James Steuart of Coltness, Bart., now first collected, with Anecdotes of the Author, by his Son, General Sir James Denham Steuart'', were published in 6 vols 8vo in 1805. Besides the ''Inquiry'' they include:
*''A Dissertation upon the Doctrine and Principles of Money applied to the German Coin'' (1758)
*''Apologie du sentiment de M. le Chevalier Newton sur l'ancienne chronologie des Grecs'' (4to, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1757)
*''An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy: Being an Essay on the Science of Domestic Policy in Free Nations, in Which Are Particularly Considered Population, Agriculture, Trade, Industry, Money, Coin, Interest, Circulation, Banks, Exchange, Public Credit, and Taxes'', (
767, 2 v.1770). Title page and chapter links,
br>
v. 2 an
v. 1
*''The Principles of Money applied to the Present State ef Bengal, published at the request of the East India Company'' (4to, 1772)
*''A Dissertation on the Policy of Grain'' (1783)
*''Plan for introducing Uniformity in Weights and Measures within the Limits of the British Empire'' (1790)
*''Observations on Beattie's Essay on Truth''
*''A Dissertation concerning the Motive of Obedience to the Law of God'', and other treatises.
References
;Notes
;Sources
*
* Hutchison, Terence (1988) - ''Before Adam Smith: the emergence of political economy''.
* Monroe, Arthur Eli (1923) - ''Monetary theory before Adam Smith''
* Sen, Samar Ranjan (1957) - ''The economics of Sir James Steuart''
* Skinner, Andrew (1966) - "Introduction" in ''An Inquiry into the Principles of Political Oeconomy'', (2 vols.) ed. by A. Skinner for the Scottish Economic Society.
* Vickers, Douglas (1959) - ''Studies in the Theory of Money, 1690-1776''
* Viner, Jacob (1937) - ''Studies in the Theory of International Trade''
*
External links
at th
History of Economic Thought website
*
', book on marxists.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steuart, James
Steuart, James Denham
Steuart, James Denham
18th-century Scottish writers
Writers from Edinburgh
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Members of the Faculty of Advocates
Steuart, James Denham, 7th Baronet
Mercantilists
People of the Scottish Enlightenment
Steuart, James Denham
Scottish Jacobites
18th-century British economists