George Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen

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Sir William Vernon Harcourt
Ministerial offices
1865–1874
Vice-President of the Board of Trade
In office
29 November 1865 – 12 March 1866
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Earl Russell
Preceded byWilliam Hutt
Succeeded byWilliam Monsell
Parliamentary offices
Earl de Grey
Succeeded byWilliam Harker
Member of Parliament
for City of London
In office
2 June 1863 – 24 March 1880
Preceded byWestern Wood
Succeeded byWilliam Lawrence
Personal details
Born(1831-08-10)10 August 1831
London, England
Died7 February 1907(1907-02-07) (aged 75)
London, England
Political partyLiberal
Liberal Unionist
Conservative
EducationRugby School
Alma materOriel College, Oxford
Vanity Fair caricature of Goschen: "The Theory of Foreign Exchanges"

George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount Goschen

DL FBA (10 August 1831 – 7 February 1907) was a British statesman and businessman best remembered for being "forgotten" by Lord Randolph Churchill. He was initially a Liberal, then a Liberal Unionist before joining the Conservative Party
in 1893.

While Chancellor of the Exchequer, in 1888, he introduced the Goschen formula to allocate funding for Scotland and Ireland.

Background, education and business career

He was born in London, the son of Wilhelm Heinrich (William Henry) Goschen, who emigrated from

Frühling & Göschen″, of Austin Friars, in 1853, and three years later became a director of the Bank of England.[2] From 1874 to 1880, Goschen was Governor (Company chairman) of the Hudson's Bay Company, North America's oldest company (established by English royal charter
in 1670).

Political career, 1863–1885

In 1863 he was returned without opposition as one of the four

First Lord of the Admiralty. In the 1874 general election he was the only Liberal returned for the City of London, and by a narrow majority. Being sent to Cairo in 1876 as delegate for the British holders of Egyptian bonds in 1876,[1]: 50  he concluded an agreement with the Khedive to arrange for the conversion of the debt.[2]

In 1878 his views on the county

Lord Hartington (afterwards 8th Duke of Devonshire) and became one of the most active of the Liberal Unionists. He failed to retain his seat for Edinburgh at the election in July of that year.[1]: 127 [2]

Political career, 1885–1895

On the resignation of

National Debt in 1888.[3] He also introduced the first UK road tax, implemented in the form of two vehicle duties, on locomotives and carts.[4][5][6]

According to Roy Jenkins, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, "Whether Goschen was a good Chancellor is more problematical. His main and real achievement was the conversion in 1888 of the core of the national debt from a 3 percent to a 2.75 percent and ultimately 2.5 percent basis. For the rest he was a stolid and uninnovating Chancellor." Professor Thomas Skinner wrote, "Yet there remains a feeling that he failed to accomplish much of what needed to be done".[7]

The

LL.D from the University of Cambridge in the same year,[8] and he received a similar honour from the University of Edinburgh in 1890.[2]

Following the defeat of Salisbury's government in 1892, Goschen moved into opposition. Though he had been a leading Liberal Unionist as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Goschen did not stand against Joseph Chamberlain for the leadership of the party in 1892 following the departure of Hartington to the House of Lords as the Duke of Devonshire. Unable to work with Chamberlain, Goschen left the Liberal Unionists and joined the Conservatives in 1893. One obvious sign of his change of allegiance within the Unionist alliance was when he joined the exclusively Conservative Carlton Club in the same year.

Political career, 1895–1907

Caricature from Punch, 13 August 1881: "This is a Joke-'im Goschen Picture of a Wise Man from the East, at present ascertaining which way the wind blows"

From 1895 to 1900 Goschen was

First Lord of the Admiralty. He retired in 1900 and was raised to the peerage as Viscount Goschen of Hawkhurst, Kent. Though retired from active politics he continued to take a great interest in public affairs, and when Chamberlain started his tariff reform movement in 1903, Lord Goschen was one of the weightiest champions of free trade on the Unionist side.[2]

Other public positions

In educational subjects Goschen had always taken the greatest interest, his best known, but by no means his only, contribution to popular culture being his participation in the University Extension Movement. His first efforts in parliament were devoted to advocating the abolition of religious tests and the admission of

President of the Royal Statistical Society
, 1886–88.

He also wrote a biography of his grandfather, The Life and Times of George Joachim Goschen, publisher and printer of Leipzig (1903). This culminated a long-standing project to refute allegations of Jewish ancestry,

Lutheran pastor named Joachimus Gosenius, recorded in 1609.[10] However, it did not prevent his family from being erroneously classed as of Jewish origin in the German genealogical work known as The Semi Gotha, first published 1913.[11]

Private life

Goschen died on 7 February 1907. He had married, in 1857, Lucy, the daughter of John Dalley, and had 6[12] children. He was succeeded by his eldest son George (1866–1952), who was also a Conservative politician, served as Governor of Madras and married the daughter of Lord Cranbrook.[2]

Cultural references

I want to leave behind me all rancid emotion.
I want to be alone. I want to forget Goschen.[13]

References

  1. ^ – via Internet Archive. July.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm 1911, p. 263.
  3. ^ "Tidy up the mess the Goschen way". Financial Times. 20 July 2011. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022.
  4. ^ "The speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer". The Times. 27 March 1888.
  5. ^ "The Excise Duties (Local)". The Times. 27 March 1888.
  6. ^ "Car tax disc to be axed after 93 years". BBC News. 5 December 2013.
  7. .
  8. ^ "Goschen, George Joachim (GSCN888GJ)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  9. ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 263–264.
  10. ^ Goschen, George Joachim (1903). The Life and Times of Georg Joachim Goschen, printer of Leipzig 1752–1828, Volume 1. p. 3.
  11. ^ "NOBLE FAMILIES OF JEWISH ANCESTRY". Archived from the original on 9 September 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2012.
  12. ^ 1871 England Census; Class: RG10; Piece: 1047; Folio: 92; Page: 3; GSU roll: 827483 in conjunction with 1891 England Census; Class: RG12; Piece: 779; Folio: 79; Page: 4; GSU roll: 6095889
  13. ^ A. R. D. Fairburn. "Away from It All". Retrieved 11 April 2015.

Further reading

External links

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