The first weekly newspaper to use statistical tables and mathematical information in support of news stories, The Economist was founded by James Wilson, an ardent free trader and proponent of laissez-faire economics. Wilson and his newspaper became an important voice of those positions both before and after it broadened its focus from financial to political news.
Born to a Quaker family in Scotland in 1805, James Wilson moved to London as a young man. There he and his brother opened a hat-manufacturing plant that was financed by their father through the sale of a similar business in their hometown of Hawick. Wilson’s business background combined with his wealth to draw him into political circles as early as 1837. Wilson was a supporter of free trade, which stood to expand his hat business, and he opposed the Corn Laws. These positions brought him into the sphere of politician and economic reformer Richard Cobden
In 1839, Wilson debuted as a writer and an economic thinker with an anti-Corn Law pamphlet, in which he argued that commodity sales would benefit from fewer government restrictions and that the competitive pricing of a free market would, in the long term, stimulate the national economy. Wilson’s theories followed those of his fellow Scotsman Adam Smith. The support of the members of Cobden’s Anti-Corn Law League
Wilson was self-taught in economic theory, but his passion for socioeconomics and free trade were evident in the prospectus for a new weekly paper that he circulated in August, 1843. He passion, as well as his position, earned him financial support, and Wilson was able to fund the paper largely through the sponsorship of the third earl of Radnor
The early issues of The Economist contained long essays on free trade and articles of various lengths on domestic and foreign trade issues, actions of the financial markets, parliamentary decisions relevant to trade, ideas for new businesses, and miscellaneous cultural and general news. Each week, Wilson included tables of financial data that supported the free trade views expressed in the news stories. Wilson spent most his time collecting information by attending parliamentary hearings and writing for his own paper as well as for The Manchester Guardian, to which he contributed a weekly column on finance from 1843 to 1853. During the early years of The Economist, Wilson still maintained and operated his hat business as well.
The Economist was successful from the start. While maintaining a steady stream of news and editorials on free trade, political economy—that is, a system in which resources are used to support the economy of a nation—and laissez-faire economics, Wilson hired journalists able to expand the readership of the paper through leads that drew attention to matters related to the economy, such as the Irish famine and capital punishment. Chief among these journalists were Thomas Hodgskin,
Of these early writers for The Economist, Spencer
Under Bagehot, The Economist retained its commitment to the use of statistics and financial tables as news. Bagehot, in fact, had been a reader of the paper from at least 1847, and he was familiar with its principles and goals. He shared with Wilson the desire to spread easy-to-understand, useful financial news to the public and through the government. Like Wilson, Bagehot favored common sense and clarity in journalistic prose, and he solidified the reputation of The Economist through his own reputation as a banker and journalist, as well as through important additions to the staff—including William Newmarch,
In 1877, Bagehot died, and ownership of the paper passed to his widow. The new editors, Sir Robert Inglis Palgrave
The Economist’s significance resided in its status as the first weekly news journal to use statistical information in support of news analysis and reportage. Wilson simultaneously popularized statistical data and demonstrated the importance of such information to argumentation. Under his leadership from 1843 to 1860, The Economist supported laissez-faire economics, free trade, and the idea of political economy, but all at the discretion of the individual. Wilson opposed the restrictive policies of the Corn Laws and capital punishment, and he became a leading voice in social reform for Ireland through his articles on the economic impact of the Great Irish Famine of 1845-1854.
Wilson also used The Economist as a tool for debating the financial ramifications of political decisions, such as the engagement of Britain in the Crimean War (1853-1856) and the various currency
Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, The Economist rivaled other news organs, including The Times
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Angell, Patrick. “The Economist.” In Consumer Magazines of the British Isles, edited by Sam Reilly. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1993. A short article that summarizes the history of the periodical, with an emphasis on its twentieth century history. -
Barzun, Jacques. “Bagehot as Historian.” In A Jacques Barzun Reader, edited and with an introduction by Michael Murray. New York: HarperCollins, 2002. Studies Bagehot’s career as a political historian and his affiliation with Locke’s idea that property was key to economic stability. -
The Economist, 1843-1943: A Centenary Volume. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 1943. A compilation of representative articles from the paper’s first one hundred years. -
Edwards, Ruth Dudley. The Pursuit of Reason: The Economist, 1843-1943. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1993. The only comprehensive history of The Economist. -
McCann, Charles R. Individualism and the Social Order: The Social Element in Liberal Thought. London: Routledge, 2004. Analyzes the role of community and society in the social thought of Spencer and other liberal philosophers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Cobbett Founds the Political Register
Ricardo Identifies Seven Key Economic Principles
Great Irish Famine
Crimean War
Gladstone Becomes Prime Minister of Britain
Richard Cobden; George Eliot; William Ewart Gladstone; Herbert Spencer.