ROBERT

See also:

• ROBERT TORRENS (1780-1864)
• TORRENS, SIR ROBERT RICHARD (1814-1884)
• TORRENS, WILLIAM TORRENS

TORRENS (1780-1864)  , English soldier and economist, was born in Ireland in 1780 . He entered the Marines in 1797, became a captain in 18o6, and major in 1811 for bravery in Anhalt during the Walcheren expedition . He fought in the Peninsula, becoming lieutenant-colonel in 1835 and retiring as colonel in 1837 . After abortive attempts to enter parliament in 1818 and 1826, he was returned in 1831 as member for Ashburton . He was a prolific writer, principally on financial and commercial policy . Almost the whole of the pro-gramme which was carried out in legislation by Sir Robert Peel had been laid down in his economic writings . He was an early and earnest advocate of the repeal of the corn laws, but was not in favour of a general system of absolute free trade, maintaining that it is expedient to impose retaliatory duties to countervail similar duties imposed by foreign countries, and a lowering of import duties on the productions of countries retaining their hostile tariffs would occasion a decline in prices, profits and wages . His principal writings of a general character were: The Economist [i.e . Physiocrat] refuted (18o8) ; Essay on the Production of Wealth (1821); Essay on the External Corn-trade (eulogized by Ricardo) (1827); The Budget, a Series of Letters on Financial, Commercial and Colonial Policy (1841–1843); The Principles and Practical Operations of Sir Robert Peel's Act of x844 Explained and Defended (1847) .