Profile Major Works Resources

John Ramsay McCulloch, 1789-1864

Portrait of J.R. McCulloch

A prolific Scottish journalist, John Ramsay McCulloch was one of the most ardent and doctrinaire expositors of  the Classical Ricardian School. 

John Ramsay McCulloch began his career as the editor of the Whig magazine The Scotsman, eventually moving on to the quarterly The Edinburgh Review, where he served as economics editor until the late 1830s. McCulloch used his position at the ER to popularize the Classical theory and promote his favorite economic policies, such as the repeal of the Corn Laws, Poor Law reform and repeal of the Combination Acts. 

After David Ricardo's death in 1823, the Political Economy Club raised a subscription for a series of public lectures on economics in his memory to be delivered in London by John Ramsay McCulloch.  While the preparation of the lectures was going on, the same coterie of figures had gone on to found a university in London - what would become University College London.  It was consequently decided to institutionalize McCulloch's lectures into a permanent "Ricardo chair" at UCL.  As a result, McCulloch was appointed the first Ricardo professor of political economy at UCL in 1828.  McCulloch held that position until 1837.  He resigned in 1838 to take up an appointed the Comptroller of HM Stationary Office.

McCulloch's main work, Principles (1825), was perhaps the first successful "serious" textbook in economics (and a rather loyal reading of Ricardo's theory).  However, critics often dismiss McCulloch as a "lightweight" in terms of the development of economic theory.  Arguably his main contribution was the ill-fated "wages fund" doctrine (1824, 1825, 1826).   

McCulloch was also the editor of the 1828 edition of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and the 1846 edition of David Ricardo's Works. He also composed some of the earliest accounts of the history of economic thought (naturally, flattering to the Ricardians).

Despite his predilection and proclamations in favor of theory, McCulloch was also a monumental compiler of empirical facts (e.g. 1832, 1837).  His 1837 treatise, in particular, provides a statistical account of the failure of the Malthusian population doctrine. 

 

  

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Major Works of John Ramsay McCulloch

[Anon McCulloch?] "Review of the arguments on the Corn Laws", 1812, Edinburgh Annual Register for 1823

 
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Resources on John Ramsay McCulloch

 

 
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