John Prince-Smith

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John Prince-Smith, 1862 (graphic by Hermann Scherenberg)

John Prince-Smith (born January 20, 1809 in London , † February 3, 1874 in Berlin ) was an economist and Manchester liberal in Germany . He was the most important figure in the German free trade movement .

Life

Prince-Smith came from a wealthy family, his father was governor in British Guiana , where Prince-Smith lived until 1820. He then returned to Great Britain, soon after losing his father and family fortune.

In 1831 he came to Elbing as an English teacher . In addition, he self- taught knowledge of economics . He worked as an English teacher until 1840. In 1846 he moved to Berlin and became wealthy again through marriage.

In 1846 he founded the German Free Trade Association , but it did not last long. More important was the establishment of the free trade school where he taught. Prince-Smith was the mentor of important later liberal journalists and economists such as Julius Faucher , Max Wirth , Otto Michaelis and Otto Wolff , who were able to set important accents in questions of national economy.

In 1848 Prince-Smith went to Frankfurt am Main with Faucher to influence the Committee for Economic Legislation in a free-trade and Manchester-liberal way. After the failure of the Paulskirche constitution , Prince-Smith ended up in Berlin, where he founded a central alliance for freedom of trade.

Prince-Smith was for a long time chairman of the National Economic Society and the permanent deputation of the Congress of German Economists . From 1861 to 1866 he represented the Stettin constituency as a member of the Prussian House of Representatives and from 1871 to 1874 he was a member of the Reichstag as a member of the constituency of the Duchy of Anhalt 1 (Dessau - Zerbst).

He translated numerous writings of Frédéric Bastiat into German.

Two weeks after his 65th birthday, John Prince-Smith died on February 3, 1874 in Berlin. He was buried in the local cemetery III of the Jerusalem and New Church in front of the Hallesches Tor . The grave has not been preserved.

Fonts

Work edition:

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Specht, Paul Schwabe: The Reichstag elections from 1867 to 1903. Statistics of the Reichstag elections together with the programs of the parties and a list of the elected representatives. 2nd edition, Verlag Carl Heymann, Berlin 1904, p. 285.
  2. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 247.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: John Prince-Smith  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Prince-Smith, John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Economist and politician (NLP), MdR, Manchester liberal in Germany
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1874
Place of death Berlin