SENIOR, NASSAU WILLIAM

born Sept. 26, 1790, Compton Beauchamp, Berkshire, Eng. died June 4, 1864, London British classical economist who exercised much influence in the political affairs of his day. Senior was educated at Eton and the University of Oxford, graduating in 1812. He qualified as a lawyer in 1819. He became one of the leading economists of the first half of the 19th century and was the first Drummond professor of political economy at Oxford (182530, 184752). Senior made many contributions to economic theory. In his An Outline of the Science of Political Economy (1836), he introduced the viewlater attacked by Marxiststhat the saving and accumulation of capital must be considered a part of the cost of production. He worked on the concept of rent, advanced the abstinence theory of the origin of interest (which proved highly influential), and led the revolt among the classical economists against the Malthusian theory of population. He also extended the theory of the distribution of precious metals and showed the importance of productivity for general price levels. Senior was actively involved in the setting of economic policy. He served as adviser to the Whig party, and he wrote the New Poor Law of 1834. He was also one of the commissioners on handloom weavers (1841) and advised the government of Prime Minister William Melbourne to oppose trade unions.