James Wilson (1805–1860), Issac Butt (1813–1879), T.E. Cliffe Leslie (1827–1882)

James Wilson was one of the first financial journalists in Britain who made a genuine contribution to economic doctrine by his staunch defence of free trade and the principles of the banking school. Above all, he was the founder of ‘The Economist’, a magazine specifically designed for businessmen. Issac Butt is best known as an early advocate of Irish Home Rule but, as Whatley Professor of Political Economy at Trinity College, Dublin, he was successful in creating something akin to an indigenous Irish brand of Classical Economics. T.E. Cliffe Leslie, Professor at Queen’s College, Belfast, is notable for his rejection of the abstract-deductive methods of the English Classical Economists in favour of an institutional and historical approach. With Bagehot, Ingram and Toynbee, he was part of what amounted to an English historical school. In particular, Leslie’s writings on the land question have been taken seriously by, amongst others, Marshall and Keynes.