Adam Smith Chair of Political Economy
| Adam Smith Chair of Political Economy University of Glasgow |
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|---|---|
| Formation | 1896 |
| Founder | Andrew Stewart |
| Named for | Adam Smith |
| First holder | William Smart |
| Website | www.gla.ac.uk/economics |
The Adam Smith Chair of Political Economy is a chair at the University of Glasgow, named for Adam Smith, pioneering economist, author of The Wealth of Nations, and one of the University's most famous sons. It was established in 1896 from a lectureship which had been endowed in 1892 by Andrew Stewart, founder of Stewarts & Lloyds tube-manufacturers. Occupants are appointed by the University Court acting with a representative of the Merchants' House of Glasgow, the Trades House of Glasgow and the Chamber of Commerce of Glasgow.
The first occupant of the Chair was William Smart. He had previously been lecturer in Political Economy at Queen Margaret College and the University's first official lecturer in Political Economy. He remained in the Chair until his death in 1915, and was succeeded the same year by William Scott. Scott, originally from Northern Ireland, was a political economy lecturer at the University of St Andrews when appointed, and an authority on Adam Smith. He served as President of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow from 1931 to 1934 and of the Royal Economic Society from 1935 to 1937. Scott also remained in the Chair until his death, in 1940. He was succeeded by Alec Macfie in 1945. He had a distinguished career, retiring in 1958, and was Dean of Faculties from 1974 to 1978. In 1990, the James Bonar Chair of Political Economy was renamed the Bonar-Macfie Chair.
In 1958, Thomas Wilson was appointed to the Chair from Oxford. Originally from Northern Ireland, Wilson had studied at Queen's University Belfast and the London School of Economics, and worked during the War in the Ministries of Economic Warfare and Aircraft Production and the Prime Minister's Statistical Branch, being appointed an OBE in the 1945 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours. He retired in 1985 and was succeeded that year by David Vines. Vines was appointed shortly after completing his Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge, and left Glasgow in 1992 to become a Fellow in Economics at Balliol College, Oxford, becoming a Professor of Economics at Oxford in 2000.
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