Douglas Copland

This article is about economist and diplomat Douglas Copland. On the writer and artist, see Douglas Coupland .

Douglas Berry Copland KBE CMG (born February 24, 1894 in Otaio near Timaru , New Zealand , † September 27, 1971 in Kyneton , Victoria , Australia ) was a New Zealand-Australian economist and diplomat .

Live and act

Douglas Copland was the thirteenth of sixteen children born to Scottish immigrants Alexander Copland and Annie Morton. Loudon who worked as farmers in the South Island of New Zealand. He attended from 1899 to 1906 the Primary School in Esk Valley and then to 1912, the High School of Waimate District . He qualified as a high school teacher at the Christchurch Teacher Education Institute , studied at Canterbury College, University of Canterbury , graduating in 1915 with a Bachelor of Arts and 1916 with a Master of Arts . After graduation, he wanted to serve in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force , but was found unfit for a heart valve defect. So he worked in a statistics bureau in Wellington , made his master's degree in mathematics in Christchurch in 1917, became a research assistant at Canterbury College and taught economics for the Workers' Educational Association in Wellington and Christchurch.

From 1917 the focus of Douglas Copland's activities shifted to Australia. In 1917 he became a lecturer in history and economics at the University of Tasmania in Hobart . In 1919 he married Ruth Victoria Jones in Waimate , whom he knew from school together. Douglas Copland's efforts to secure a chair at Canterbury College and the University of Otago in New Zealand were unsuccessful, so his wife followed him to Australia. In 1920 he was appointed Professor of Economics at the University of Tasmania and Dean of the Faculty of Commerce. He was also a tutor of the Tasmanian Workers' Educational Association and from 1921 to 1922 its president. He advised the Tasmanian government on economic and educational issues. In 1922, overexertion led to a stomach ulcer , which later gave him problems.

In 1924, Copland was appointed to a chair at the newly established Faculty of Commerce at the University of Melbourne and became its dean. In 1925 he received the Doctor of Science from the University of New Zealand for his study of the wheat industry. In 1925 he was a founding member of the Economic Society of Australia and New Zealand, its first president until 1928 and editor of its journal Economic Record until 1945 . In 1926 he visited universities, colleges, research institutes, government departments and banks in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and other European countries as a guest of the Rockefeller Foundation .

On behalf of the Commonwealth Development and Migration Commission, he assessed investment projects and dealt with issues relating to unemployment insurance , collective bargaining and economic stability in Australia. In 1931 he was chairman of a committee of economists and financial policymakers at the Australian Loan Council, which advised on restoring financial stability and approved the Premiers' Plan (originally called the Copland Plan ), which provided for budget cuts and debt restructuring. The measures were controversial, but were rated positively by John Maynard Keynes in 1932 for saving Australia's economic structure. In 1933 he was a member of the Australian delegation to the 14th session of the League of Nations in Geneva . Copland wrote Australia in the world crisis, 1929-1933 for the Alfred Marshall Lectures at the University of Cambridge and received the Doctor of Letters from the University of Melbourne in 1935.

He advised the government of Victoria , in 1938 he became chairman of the state economic committee. From 1932 to 1939 he was unofficial advisor to the Prime Minister of New South Wales Bertram Stevens . The increased public awareness of Douglas Copland also strengthened his position at the University of Melbourne. He worked in administration, was chairman of the professorial board from 1935 to 1937 and acting vice-chancellor from 1936 to 1937. Since he was narrowly defeated in the election of Vice Chancellor in 1938, his interest in university affairs waned again. From 1939 to 1945 he was Price Commissioner of the Commonwealth of Australia and did a successful job in ensuring price stability. From 1941 to 1945 he was Prime Minister John Curtin's economic advisor . He dealt with the development of social security, foreign economic relations and advised in preparation for the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944. In 1946 he became Australian Minister to China (former name for the ambassador to China) and took part in the first General Assembly of the United Nations part.

In 1948 he returned to Canberra, was founding vice-chancellor of the Australian National University and was responsible for the design of the University House, the scientific and social science research facilities and the John Curtin School for medical research until 1953 . In 1949 he began a collaboration with the Immigration Planning Council, which lasted until 1968.

In 1953, Douglas Copland was appointed High Commissioner for Australia in Canada . He represented Australia at meetings of the United Nations, was a member and 1955 President of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations , 1953 Chairman of the 5th meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration in Geneva and took part in the 1954 World Population Conference in Rome .

In 1956 he went back to Australia. He became head of a business-run Administrative Staff College at Mount Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula . In 1957 he became the first President of the Business Archives Council of Australia in Victoria, in 1958 founding director of the National Obsolescence Council and in 1959 of the Australian Productivity Council. In 1960 he set up the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), a bipartisan, non-profit organization with thought leaders on Australia's political, economic and social prospects.

Douglas Copland has given guest lectures worldwide, including at Harvard University , the University of Oxford , the University of Dublin and McGill University in Montreal. He has authored or co-authored several books and scholarly and popular science articles and radio commentator.

He died on September 27, 1971 in Kyneton and was buried in Springvale Cemetery. He left behind his wife Ruth Victoria and two daughters. Named after him are the Copland Lecture Theater , a lecture hall at the University of Melbourne, the Copland Building , a building belonging to the Australian National University, and Copland College , a primary school in the Australian Capital Territory in the Melba suburb of Canberra. Portraits of him are in the University of Melbourne (by Charles Wheeler ) and at the Australian Management College at Mount Eliza (by Paul Fitzgerald ).

Honors

• 1933: Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George
• 1948: Member of the American Philosophical Society
• 1950: Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
• 1967: Honorary Doctorate from the Australian National University

Fonts

• The progress and importance of wheat production in New Zealand, with observations on the leading principles underlying the successful culture of wheat. Master thesis. Canterbury University College, 1915.
• Studies in economics and social science. Macmillan, Melbourne 1927.
• with James B. Brigden, Edward C. Dyason, Lyndhurst Falkiner Giblin, Charles H. Wickens: The Australian Tariff. An economic inquiry. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 1929.
• Australia in the world crisis, 1929-1933. Alfred Marshall Lectures at the University of Cambridge, October / November 1934. University Press, Cambridge 1934. Reprint: AMS, New York 1970, ISBN 0-40401718-5 .
• WE Hearn. First Australian economist. Murtagh-Macrossan Lectures at the University of Queensland, 1935. Melbourne University Press, Melbourne 1935.
• Road to high employment. Administrative controls in a free economy. Godkin Lectures at Harvard University, 1944–1945. Harvard University Press, Cambridge 1945.
• The Australian economy. Simple economic studies. Angus and Robertson, Sydney 1947.
• Inflation and expansion. Essays on the Australian economy. Cheshire, Melbourne 1951.
• Problems of the sterling area. With special reference to Australia. High Wycombe, Tylers Green 1953.
• The changing structure of the Western economy. McGill, Montreal 1963.

literature

• Essays in the Honor of Sir Douglas Copland. With an introduction by Arthur A. Calwell. In: The Economic Record. Volume 36. Blackwell, Richmond 1960, ISSN  0013-0249 , pp. 1-178.
• Marjorie Harper: Douglas Copland. Scholar, economist, diplomat. Miegunyha, Carlton 2013, ISBN 978-0-522-86284-3 .

Web links

• Sir Douglas Copland Tribute. Obituary in: ANU Reporter. October 8, 1971, p. 2 ( online at Obituaries Australia)
• Marjorie Harper: Copland, Sir Douglas Berry (1894–1971). In: Australian Dictionary of Biography . Volume 13. Melbourne University Press, Carlton 1993, ISBN 0-522-84512-6 .
• The Legacy of Sir Douglas Copland. Founder of the CEDA. Committee for Economic Development of Australia, 2010 (PDF; 2.3 MB)
• Guide to the Papers of Sir Douglas Copland (as of 2010) with curriculum vitae

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Copland, Douglas Berry (CMG) on itsanhonour.gov.au
2. ↑ Copland, Douglas Berry (KBE (C)) on itsanhonour.gov.au