Arthur Latham Perry (USA)

Arthur Latham Perry (1830–1905), born in Lyme, New Hampshire, was a prominent American economist and advocate of free trade.

Arthur Latham Perry from a circa 1866 albumen photograph by George Kendall Warren

He graduated from Williams College in 1852 and was Orrin Sage Professor of history and political economy there from 1853 to 1891, when he became professor emeritus. He advocated free trade, and in 1868-69 publicly debated this question with Horace Greeley in Boston and New York. His book Political Economy (1865) went through 22 editions during his life, and his Introduction to Political Economy (1877) went through five editions. His final statement came in 1891 with his Principles of Political Economy.

Though he was the "most widely read American economist of his time", with his texts taking only third place in sales behind those of Adam Smith and J.S. Mill, his name does not appear in most histories of economics, such as that of Joseph Schumpeter. The reason for this later neglect may lie in the general decreased reputation for the scholarship of the French Liberal School of Frédéric Bastiat, the general approach of which Perry carried on. Perry conceived of economics as the "science of Buying and Selling," or, as Richard Whately earlier termed it, catallactics.

His basic case against protectionism was that it benefited the rich at the expense of the poor, the industrialists at the expense of farmers and others, as is indicated in the title of his widely circulated pamphlet, "Foes of the Farmers."

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Latham_Perry

Arthur Latham Perry, Williams Class of 1852, was born on February 27, 1830 and died on July 9, 1905. He was raised in poverty in New Hampshire but was able to attend Williams College, where he was one of the founders and charter members of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity.

After graduating, he taught in Washington for a year but returned immediately when offered a position at Williams as professor of history and political economy. He taught these subjects from 1854 to 1891. While at the college he also taught German language and literature 1854-1868. As a professor of Political Economy, 1859-1899, he wrote many textbooks and monographs and was considered a leading expert in the field of free trade.

For several years he toured the country during his summer holidays, giving lectures on the principle of free trade for The American Free Trade League. He also wrote important history books on Williamstown and Williams College, Origins of Williamstown (1894) and Williamstown and Williams College (1898).

In 1891 Professor Perry retired and acted as a consultant to the governors of Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut. It was for his great devotion to Williams College that the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity house was named in honor of him.

Perry married Mary Brown Smedley, whose ancestors were some of the first settlers of Williamstown and famous leaders of the Revolutionary War. With her he had five sons and one daughter: Bliss, Arthur, Walter, Carroll, Lewis and Grace. Papers for years to come would describe the brothers as a member of an old and distinguished Williamstown family."

Source: http://archives.williams.edu/williamshistory/biographies/perry-arthur-latham.php