William Cunningham

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For American basketball player, see William Cunningham (basketball).

William Cunningham (December 29, 1849 - 1919), English economist, was born at Edinburgh, Scotland. He was an eminent economic historian, a proponent of the historical method in economics, and an opponent of free trade.

Educated at Edinburgh Academy and University and Trinity College, Cambridge, he graduated 1st class in the Moral Science tripos in 1873, and in the same year took holy orders. He was university lecturer in history from 1884 to 1891, in which year he was appointed professor of economics at King's College London, a post which he held until 1897. He was lecturer in economic history at Harvard University (1899), and Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge (1885). He became vicar of Great St Mary's, Cambridge, in 1887, and was made a fellow of the British Academy. In 1906 he was appointed archdeacon of Ely.

Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the Early and Middle Ages (1890; 4th ed., 1905) and Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times (1882; 3rd ed., 1903) are among the standard works of reference on the industrial history of England.

Cunningham's eminence as an economic historian gave special importance to his support of Joseph Chamberlain from 1903 onwards in criticizing the English free-trade policies and advocating tariff reform.

He was a critic of the nascent Neoclassical economics, particularly as propounded by his colleague, Alfred Marshall and the Cambridge School.

[edit] Works

• Growth of English Industry and Commerce in Modern Times (1882; 3rd ed., 1903)
• Growth of English Industry and Commerce during the Early and Middle Ages (1890; 4th ed., 1905)
• The Use and Abuse of Money (1891)
• Alien Immigration (1897)
• Western Civilization in its Economic Aspect in Ancient Times (1898)
• Western Civilization in its Economic Aspect inModern Times (1900)
• The Rise and Decline of Free Trade (1905).

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.