ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: Lord William Wyndham Grenville as a Political Economist
Author: Depoortère Christophe
William Windham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (1759-1834), was considered by his contemporaries as one of the most enlightened members of Parliament on matters of political economy. David Ricardo had for example “a very high opinion of his judgment, on all matters of Political Economy” (Ricardo in Heertje 1991: 520), while Thomas Tooke considered that “there is no one who has taken a more distinguished part in the discussion which occurred on the great question of the Restriction and Resumption of Cash Payments, and no one who, from personal experience, as well as from extensive research, can bring more various information to bear upon the subject, or who can better appreciate the arguments brought forward by others” (Tooke 1829: 1). However, except Pullen’s 1987 article "Lord Grenville's Manuscript Notes on Malthus", Grenville’s economic thought remains totally unrecognized by historians of the economic thought. For example, though he was Member of Parliament from 1782 to 1822 and took an important part in the monetary debates of his time, Grenville’s name does not even appear in Fetter’s works, either in "The Economists in Parliament" or in the "Development of British Monetary Orthodoxy". In my paper, I endeavour to give an extensive survey of Lord Grenville’s thought on political economy which included the major political and theoretical issues discussed by economists of this period: the questions of population, of value, of distribution, of money and of public debt. My research is based on Grenville’s published works as well as on the report of proceedings of the parliamentary debates. I also make a significant use of Grenville’s unpublished manuscripts. These include his readings notes on the works of Smith, Malthus, Godwin, Ricardo, Marcet, as well as an extensive draft (more than 700 folio) of a work entitled "Essay on the Study of Political Economy". The content of this manuscript held among the "Dropmore papers" in the British Library confirms that Grenville would deserve to be considered as a genuine political economist. References Fetter, F. W. 1965. Development of British Monetary Orthodoxy 1797-1875. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. _____. 1980. The Economists in Parliament 1780-1868. Durham: Duke University Press. Heertje, A. 1991. Three unpublished letters by David Ricardo. History of Political Economy, 23: 519–26. Pullen, J. 1987. Lord Grenville's Manuscript Notes on Malthus. History of Political Economy, 19:217-237. Tooke, Thomas. 1829. A Letter to Lord Grenville on the Effects Ascribed to the Resumption of Cash Payments on the Value of the Currency. London: John Murray.
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