Henry Charles Taylor

Henry Charles Taylor (April 16, 1873 – April 28, 1969) was an American agricultural economist. As an early pioneer in the field, he has been called the "father of agricultural economics" in the United States. Taylor established the first university department dedicated to agricultural economics in the United States in 1909 during his time at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He also had a brief but very influential career in the United States Department of Agriculture from 1919 to 1925, where he helped reorganize its offices and became head of the new Bureau of Agricultural Economics. Coming from a rural farm community himself, Taylor's foremost goal was always to try to improve the living conditions of farmers.

Taylor was born in Iowa on a farm near . Growing up, he witnessed his father, Tarpley Taylor, expand his farm from about 60 acres (240,000 m²) to 600 acres (2.4 km²) by buying small farms from early settlers. From an early age he was able to see how proper land and economic management reinforced each other. Additionally, Taylor had been impacted by the depressions of the late 19th century, especially that of the 1890s, and what devastating effects they had on farmers. He entered Drake University to do two years of preparatory work, then went on to Iowa State College, where he received his B.S. in agriculture in 1896, then his M.S. in agriculture in 1898. He then joined the University of Wisconsin–Madison to earn his Ph.D. Taylor's original intention upon going to Wisconsin was to take up a career as a statesman in order to represent farmers. However he soon realized that his economics study offered more than he was expecting. Later in his career, he stated that "90 per cent of what could be done for the farmers was what they could do for themselves by adjusting production." Inspired by economics professor Richard T. Ely, he left in 1899 to travel through Europe, briefly studying economics at the London School of Economics in Britain and at the University of Halle-Wittenberg and the University of Berlin in Germany. His doctoral dissertation was on "The Decline of Land Owners Farmers in England," which had him traveling by bicycle to visit more than a hundred farms. Taylor returned to Wisconsin in 1901 to complete his degree in economics in 1902.

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