ROBERT

See also:

• HAMILTON
• HAMILTON (GRAND or ASHUANIPI)
• HAMILTON, ALEXANDER (1757-1804)
• HAMILTON, ANTHONY, or ANTOINE (1646-1720)
• HAMILTON, ELIZABETH (1758–1816)
• HAMILTON, EMMA, LADY (c. 1765-1815)
• HAMILTON, JAMES (1769-1831)
• HAMILTON, JAMES HAMILTON, 1ST DUKE OF (1606-1649)
• HAMILTON, JOHN (c. 1511–1571)
• HAMILTON, MARQUESSES AND DUKES OF
• HAMILTON, PATRICK (1504-1528)
• ROBERT HAMILTON (1743-1829)
• HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM
• HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM (1730-1803)
• HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM ROWAN (1805-1865)
• HAMILTON, THOMAS (1789-1842)
• HAMILTON, WILLIAM (1704-1754)
• HAMILTON, WILLIAM GERARD (1729-1796)

HAMILTON (1743-1829)  , Scottish economist and mathematician, was born at Pilrig, Edinburgh, on the 11th of June 1743 . His grandfather, William Hamilton, principal of Edinburgh University, had been a professor of divinity . Having completed his education at the university of Edinburgh, where he was distinguished in mathematics, Robert was induced to enter a banking-house in order to acquire a practical knowledge of business, but his ambition was really academic . In 1769 he gave up business pursuits and accepted the rectorship of Perth academy . In 1779 he was presented to the chair of natural philosophy at Aberdeen University . For many years, however, by private arrangement with his colleague Professor Copland, Hamilton taught the class of mathematics . In 1817 he was presented to the latter chair . Hamilton's most important work is the Essay on the National Debt, which appeared in 1813 and was undoubtedly the first to expose the economic fallacies involved in Pitt's policy of a sinking fund . It is still of value . A posthumous volume published in 183o, The Progress of Society, is also of great ability, and is a very effective treatment of economical principles by tracing their natural origin and position in the development of social life . Some minor works of a practical character (Introduction to Merchandise, 1777 ; Essay on War and Peace, 1790) are now forgotten .