James Bonar

Born in Perthshire in 1852 and raised in Glasgow, James Bonar studied at Glasgow and Balliol College, Oxford. He built a long career in the British civil service, while also developing a strong reputation as a political economist and historian of ideas.

Bonar wrote on major figures in economics including Thomas Robert Malthus and Adam Smith, and he is especially remembered for Philosophy and Political Economy (1893), a study of how philosophical ideas shaped economic theory. He also edited important collections of David Ricardo's letters and wrote on value, money, and the development of economic thought.

Alongside his writing, Bonar remained closely connected to academic life. Sources from Glasgow and Cambridge describe him as a distinguished economist and scholar, and the University of Glasgow later named a chair in political economy in his honor. He died in 1941.