Profile Major Works Resources

Thomas Perronet Thompson, 1783-1869.


English soldier, pamphleteer and statesman.

Originally from Hull, Yorkshire, Thomas Perronet Thompson was educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, graduating in 1802.  Perronet Thompson subsequently served in the royal navy, transferring to the army in 1806.  He was captured in a 1807 attack on Buenos Aires and briefly imprisoned.  In 1808, T. Perronet Thompson was appointed governor of Sierra Leone in 1808, but was recalled by 1810.  In 1812, he returned to the army, serving in Spain, and after the peace, in India.  He became a lieutenant colonel in 1829 and a colonel in 1846.

Upon his return to England in 1822, Perronet Thompson delved into the political and economic debates of the day.  In 1826, in the course of a review of James Mill Essay, Perronet Thompson attempted to demolish the Ricardian theory of rent, regarding it as a faulty and useless appendage of classical theory.  He followed this up with his highly popular Catechism on the Corn Laws (1827), which was reprinted numerous times by the Anti-Corn Law League.

In 1828, Thompson became a proprietor of the Westminster Review, the fledgling Benthamite journal, and contributed numerous articles to it.  He joined the Political Economy Club soon after.

Perronet Thompson stood for parliament, representing Hull in 1835.  He lost his seat in 1837 and, after several failed elections, finally managed to return to parliament for Bradford in 1847-52 and again in 1857-59.

 

  


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Major Works of T. Perronet Thompson

  • "On the Instrument of Exchange", 1824, Westminster Review [1830 reprint]
  • An Exposition of Fallacies on Rent, Tithes, &c, containing an examination of Mr. Ricardo's theory of rent and of the arguments brought against  the conclusion that tithes and taxes on land are paid by the landowners, the doctrine of the impossibility of a general glut, and other proposition of the modern school, with an inquiry into the comparative consequences of taxes on agricultural and manufactured produce, being in the form of a review of the third edition of Mr. Mill's Elements of Political Economy, 1826 [bk] [Reprinted 1826 as The True Theory of Rent in opposition to Mr. Ricardo and others] 2nd ed (in Pamphleteer); 1829  4th ed.]
  • Catechism on the Corn Laws, with a list of fallacies and the answers, 1827 [1827 2nd ed] [1826 ed in Pamphleteer, 1829 10th ed, 1831 15th ed, 1834 18th ed.; abridged ed]
  • "Colonization and Commerce in British India", 1829, Westminster Review [1830 offprint]
  • "Article on Essays in the Pursuit of Truth", 1829, Westminster Review [1829 offprint]
  • Letters of a Representative to His Constituents, during the session of 1836. 1836 [bk]
  • Exercises, Political and Other, 1842 v.1, v.2, v.3, v.4, v.5 v.6 [1843 2nd ed: v.1, v.2, v.3, v. 4, v.5, v.6]
  • Geometry without Axioms, or the First Book of Euclid's Elements, with alterations and familiar notes, and an intercalary book in which the straight line and plane are derived from properties of the sphere  [1833 4th ed.]
  • Corn Law Fallacies: with the answers, [1839 2nd ed]
  • Catechism on the Currency, 1848 [1848 3rd ed]
  • Corn Laws, extracts from the works of T. Perronet Thompson, (R. Cobden, editor), 1842 [bk]
  • Theory and Practice of Just Intonation, with a view to the abolition of temperament, as illustrated by the description and use of the enharmonic organ, presenting the power of executing with the simple ratios in twenty keys, with a Correction for changes of temperature, built by Messrs. Robson &c. for the Exhibition of 1851, 1850 [bk]
  • Theory of Parallels, the proof that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, looked for in the inflation of the sphere, 1853 [bk]
  • Fallacies against the Ballot, with the answer, 1855 [bk]
  • Audi alteram partem, letters of a representative to his constituents, 1858 [bk]

 


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