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ROBERT HAMILTON (1743-1829)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 888 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROBERT HAMILTON (1743-1829)  , Scottish economist and mathematician, was born at Pilrig,
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Edinburgh, on the 11th of
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June 1743 . His grandfather, William Hamilton,
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principal of Edinburgh University, had been a professor of divinity . Having completed his
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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
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practical knowledge of business, but his ambition was really
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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
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work is the Essay on the
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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
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posthumous
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volume published in 183o, The Progress of Society, is also of
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great ability, and is a very effective treatment of economical principles by tracing their natural origin and position in the development of social
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life . Some minor
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works of a practical character (Introduction to Merchandise, 1777 ; Essay on War and Peace, 1790) are now forgotten .

End of Article: ROBERT HAMILTON (1743-1829)
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