The Physiocrates

The English historian of economic thought Higgs discusses iin a series of lectures given at the London School of Economics in 1896 the 18th century free market Physiocratic school, its origins, ideas, political and intellectual influence. Henry Higgs was a British civil servant, economist, and historian of economic thought. Higgs joined the War Office as a Lower Division Clerk in 1882. From there he moved to the Postmaster General's Office in 1884 when he also began taking courses at University College London. He received an LLB degree at the latter in 1890. He went to Treasury in 1899 and was appointed Private Secretary of then-Prime Minister Henry Campbell Bannerman for three years before returning to Treasury in 1908. Among other subjects, Higgs wrote on the economist Richard Cantillon and edited what became the standard version of Cantillon's Essai sur la nature du commerce en general. He also wrote on the Physiocrats, the financial system of the United Kingdom, and financial reform.