James Bonar (27 September 1852 – 18 January 1941) was a Scottish civil servant,

political economist 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 mar ...

and historian of economic thought. He was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

but brought up, from the age of four, in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

where his father was a

Church of Scotland Minister A Church of Scotland congregation is led by its minister and elders. Both of these terms are also used in other Christian denominations: see Minister (Christianity) and Elder (Christianity). This article discusses the specific understanding o ...

. This clerical background extends to two uncles, both ministers who 'came out' in the

disruption of 1843 The Disruption of 1843, also known as the Great Disruption, was a schism in 1843 in which 450 evangelical ministers broke away from the Church of Scotland to form the Free Church of Scotland. The main conflict was over whether the Church of S ...

, both later serving terms as Moderator of the

Free Church A free church is a Christian denomination that is intrinsically separate from government (as opposed to a state church). A free church does not define government policy, and a free church does not accept church theology or policy definitions from ...

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...

. From

Glasgow Academy The Glasgow Academy is a coeducational independent day school for pupils aged 3–18 in Glasgow, Scotland. In 2016, it had the third-best Higher level exam results in Scotland. Founded in 1845, it is the oldest continuously fully independent ...

Bonar graduated MA in Mental Philosophy from

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

in 1874. He followed the same lengthy undergraduate career that

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——— ...

pursued more than a century before gaining a

Snell Exhibition The Snell Exhibition is an annual scholarship awarded to students of the University of Glasgow to allow them to undertake postgraduate study at Balliol College, Oxford. The award was founded by the bequest of Sir John Snell in a will made in 1677 ...

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

from which he graduated with a first in 1877. A major early influence was the moral philosopher,

Edward Caird Edward Caird (; 23 March 1835 – 1 November 1908) was a Scottish philosopher. He was a holder of LLD, DCL, and DLitt. Life The younger brother of the theologian John Caird, he was the son of engineer John Caird, the proprietor of Caird ...

: first as Professor at Glasgow and then as Master of Balliol. Together with his family background that influence helps explain Bonar's decision to spend the next three years teaching economics in the newly established

University Extension Movement A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which rou ...

in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

. In 1881 he began a career in the civil service only retiring (to live in Hampstead) from his final position, as Deputy Manager of the Ottawa branch of the

Royal mint The Royal Mint is the United Kingdom's oldest company and the official maker of British coins. Operating under the legal name The Royal Mint Limited, it is a limited company that is wholly owned by His Majesty's Treasury and is under an exclus ...

, in 1919 at the age of 67. In 1886, with J. H. Muirhead and others, Bonar was instrumental in establishing the London Ethical Society, the first ethical society in the UK. Although the LES became the London School of Ethics and Philosophy in 1897 (which was later absorbed in the

London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...

), it was the first of a growing number of ethical societies which prompted the formation of the Union of Ethical Societies in 1896, known today as

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious be ...

. He was awarded an LLD from Glasgow University in 1887, and an honorary doctorate from Cambridge University in 1935.

Major publications

''Parson Malthus''
1881.
''Malthus and his Work''
1885. *
Letters of David Ricardo to Thomas Robert Malthus: 1810–1823
' (ed.), 1887.
"Austrian economists and their view of value"
1888, ''QJE'' *
''Philosophy and Political Economy''
1893
3rd ed. 1922
4th ed. 1927)
''Catalogue of Adam Smith's Library''
1894. * *
Letters of David Ricardo to Hutches Trower and Others: 1811–1823
' (with J.H. Hollander), 1899. *
Disturbing Elements in the Study and Teaching of Political Economy
', 1911.
"Knapp's theory of money"
1922, ''EJ''
''Ricardo's Ingot Plan''
1923, ''EJ'' * "Memories of F.Y. Edgeworth", 1926, ''EJ'' * ''The Tables Turned. A Lecture and Dialogue on Adam Smith and the Classical Economists'', 1926. * "Ricardo on Malthus", 1929, ''EJ''

1931

References

• Shirras, G F 'Obituary: James Bonar', Economic Journal vol. 51, April 1941, pp. 145–56. * "Bonar, James" in '' The New Palgrave: A Dictionary of Economics'', Eatwell, Milgate, Newman (eds.), 1987. * M. Blaug (ed.) – ''Who's who in economics'' (3d edition), 1999. • "Bonar, James" in Rutherford D (ed.) The Biographical Dictionary of British Economists' vol.1, Theommes Continuum, 2004,pp. 123–4.

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bonar, James 1852 births 1941 deaths 19th-century British economists 19th-century Scottish historians 20th-century British economists Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Glasgow Historians of economic thought People educated at the Glasgow Academy Writers from Glasgow Writers from Perth, Scotland Royal Canadian Mint presidents Scottish civil servants Scottish economists 20th-century Scottish historians