Henry Martyn (economist)
Henry Martyn (baptised 1665 at Aldbourne, Wiltshire[1] – 1721 at Blackheath, London) was a lawyer and Whig loyalist in early eighteenth-century England.[2] He was the author of Considerations Upon the East India Trade (1701),[3] which went even beyond the case for free trade advanced seventy-five years later by Adam Smith in The Wealth of Nations. Martyn’s tract contains other remarkable insights that became important features of classical political economy, such as the nature and advantages of the division of labor, the dependence of the latter on the extent of the market, the workings of a market economy, the role of money, and the impact of international trade on resource allocation, on productivity, and on economic welfare.[4]
He was opposed to the protectionist policies of his time and supported free market. He aspired to enter the political arena, but because he felt his vision would not be accepted and would harm his political ambitions, he was compelled to publish his famous work anonymously.[2]
Martyn was also a writer for The Spectator and The British Merchant.
References[edit]
- ^ "Martyn [Martin], Henry (bap. 1665, d. 1721), essayist and economist". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/18185. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 12 May 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ a b Rodrik, Dani (2011). The globalization paradox : democracy and the future of the world economy. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 978-0-393-07161-0. OCLC 601107542.
- ^ Anonymous; attributed to Henry Martyn or Martin (1701). Considerations upon the EAST INDIA TRADE.
- ^ Maneschi, Andrea (June 2002). "The Tercentenary of Henry Martyn's Considerations upon the East-India Trade". Journal of the History of Economic Thought. 24 (2): 233–249. doi:10.1080/10427710220134385. ISSN 1469-9656. S2CID 155069547.