James Wilson (businessman)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Viscount Palmerston
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded bySir Samuel Laing
Personal details
Born3 June 1805 (1805-06-03)
Whig
Liberal
SpouseElizabeth Preston
Children6

James Wilson (3 June 1805 – 11 August 1860) was a

Sepoy Mutiny" of 1857, he presented India's first budget, and was responsible for the government accounting system, Pay Office, and audit, apart from government paper currency, Indian Police, a Military Finance Commission, and a Civil Finance Commission.[5]

Early life

Wilson was born in

Quaker father William Wilson owned a hat manufactury, and his ancestors were local sheep farmers. He was the fourth of fifteen children, of whom ten reached adulthood. His mother died when James was young.[6]

A successful disciplined

autodidact scholar from a Quaker family, he was destined to be a schoolmaster but hated it so much that he "would rather to be the most menial servant in [his] father's mill". After considering studying law with a view to becoming an advocate, a profession which would have meant abandoning his family religion, Wilson decided instead to learn business, and at the age of sixteen became an apprentice in a hat factory. Later, his father bought the business for him and his elder brother, William. When James Wilson was nineteen, the brothers left Scotland and migrated to London, with a gift of £2,000 each,[7]
equivalent to £187,240 in 2021.

Career

Business

The brothers established a manufacturing factory—Wilson, Irwin & Wilson—that they dissolved in 1831. Wilson continued in the same line of business with much success (his

Standard Chartered Bank in 1969.[5]

Journalism

Wilson was generally opposed to privileging the

Ten Hours Bill[8] was criticised by Karl Marx[9] for misunderstanding profit and the working day. The Economist is still published today, now with a weekly circulation of over 1.6 million globally.[10] Wilson was the most respected statistician of his times and saw economics as an optimistic and rational way of mediating socially sustainable futures drawing on the Scottish School of Adam Smith and the French "Entrepreneur" School of Jean-Baptiste Say.[citation needed
]

Politics

Wilson entered the

Privy Council the same year.[13]

In August 1859, Wilson resigned these offices and his seat in parliament to sit as the financial member of the Council of India. He was sent by Queen Victoria to India to establish the tax structure, a new paper currency, and remodel India's finance system after the Rebellion of 1857. However, he was in office only a year before he died. In 1860, he refused to leave the stifling summer heat of Calcutta, contracted dysentery, and died in August of that year at age 55.[2]

Despite his prominent public role, Wilson was buried unknown at a cemetery at Mullick Bazar in Kolkata. His grave was discovered in 2007 by CP Bhatia, a joint commissioner of Income Tax, while researching a book on India's tax history. Due to the efforts of CP Bhatia the tombstone was restored by the Christian Burial Board.[14][15]

Family

Wilson married Elizabeth Preston of

Newcastle-upon-Tyne in January 1832. They had six daughters, of whom Eliza, the eldest, married Walter Bagehot.[16]

Works

References

  1. ^ "A Scotchman inside every man. (James Wilson, founder of The Economist)". The Economist. 11 September 1993.
  2. ^ a b James Wilson by Ruth Dudley Edwards in Oxford DNB
  3. ISBN 978-0-87584-608-8
    .
  4. ISBN 0-85527-219-8
  5. ^ a b Sreekumar, G. (20 January 2021). "From Hawick to Hawick: The story of The Economist founder James Wilson". Business Standard India. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  6. ISBN 978-0-415-13154-4
    .
  7. ^ "Inflation and the 2% target". bankofengland.co.uk. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  8. ^ The Economist 15 April 1848
  9. ^ Marx, Karl (1976). Capital Volume 1. London: Penguin. p. 338.
  10. ^ "The Economist circulation statistics". Archived from the original on 3 January 2013.
  11. ^ "leighrayment.com "House of Commons: Waterloo to West Looe"". Archived from the original on 1 May 2009. Retrieved 5 September 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  12. ^ "leighrayment.com "House of Commons: Devizes to Dorset West"". Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 5 September 2009.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  13. ^ "No. 22276". The London Gazette. 18 June 1859. p. 2401.
  14. ^ Ishita Ayan Dutt, business-standard.com "In British times, the opium trade protected people from taxes", Business Standard, 4 September 2009.
  15. ^ Soumitra Das, "Taxman rediscovers father of taxation – Mullickbazar grave of Economist founder James Wilson gets facelift ahead of 150th death anniversary", Telegraph India, 11 August 2009.
  16. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/1029. Retrieved 25 January 2017. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)

External links
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Sir Ralph Lopes, Bt
 Member of Parliament for Westbury
1847 – 1857 		Succeeded by
Sir Massey Lopes, Bt
Preceded by Member of Parliament for
Sir Michael Seymour
1859 		Succeeded by
Sir Michael Seymour
Sir Arthur William Buller
Political offices
Preceded by
George Cornewall Lewis
Hon. John Elliot
1849–1852 		Succeeded by
Henry Baillie
Charles Bruce
Preceded by Financial Secretary to the Treasury
1853–1858 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Paymaster General
1859 		Succeeded by
Vice-President of the Board of Trade

1859
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Wilson_(businessman)&oldid=1182869806"