William Blake (economist)

William Blake (1774–1852) was an English classical economist who contributed to the early theory of purchasing power parity.

He was born in London on 31 January 1774, the son of William and Alicia Blake. He was educated at Charterhouse School, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1789. He graduated B.A. in 1793 as 7th wrangler, became a Fellow of the college in 1795, and graduated M.A. in 1796. Giving up his fellowship in 1797, he entered Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in 1799.

Blake was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1807. He served as President of the Geological Society of London in 1815–6, which he had joined in 1812. He became a member of the Royal Geographical Society in 1830. He also belonged to the Political Economy Club, from 1831, and the King of Clubs dining club of Whigs.

Blake leased St John's Lodge in Welwyn, Hertfordshire, with a park of 130 acres, from 1819. He purchased the property in 1824, changing the name to Danesbury. He was High Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1836.

Under the Slave Compensation Act 1837 Blake received £34,301 17s 9d in compensation for 1,651 enslaved persons in St Vincent and Tobago.

Blake was initially known as a bullionist, one of the monetary writers of the early 19th century. He published Observations on the Principles Which Regulate the Course of Exchange, and on the Present Depreciated Slate of the Currency (1810). For half a century it was considered a leading authority on exchange rates. It made heavy reference to the writing of John Wheatley. Fossati has argued that the debates on money and bank credit for British parliamentary reports of 1804 and 1810 clarified the theory, at the hands of Wheatley and others, including in particular Blake and John Leslie Foster (with Walter Boyd, Lord King, and Henry Thornton).Joseph Lowe, who wrote many reviews of the pamphlet literature of the bullion debate, approved of Blake's content but complained he was verbose.

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