CHILD, SIR JOSIAH, 1ST BARONET

born 1630, London, Eng. died June 22, 1699, London? English merchant, economist, and governor of the East India Company. The son of a London merchant, Child amassed a comfortable fortune as supplier of food to the navy under the Commonwealth. He also became a considerable stockholder in the East India Company. His speeches and writings supporting the East India Company's claims to political power and its right to restrict any competition with its trade brought him to the notice of the other shareholders. He became a director of the company in 1677, and he subsequently became deputy governor and then governor (1681-83, 1686-88) of the East India Company. For a time he was virtually the sole decision maker of the company, and he directed its policy as if it were his own private business. He was often and openly accused of using the company to aggrandize his social, economic, and political position. He received his baronetcy in 1678. Child made some important contributions to economics, especially Brief Observations Concerning Trade and the Interest of Money (1668) and A New Discourse of Trade (1668, 1690). He viewed Dutch prosperity as deriving in part from a low-interest-rate policy and in part from a relatively liberal trade policy, and he advocated similar policies for the English. He had the mercantilist partiality for a numerous population and propounded a scheme for the relief and employment of the poor. He also advocated the reservation by the mother country of the sole right of trade with its colonies.