Profile Major Works Resources

Thomas Attwood, 1783-1856.

English banker, anti-classical economist and radical activist, leader of what is sometimes called the "Birmingham School" of currency and underconsumption .

Born in Halesworth, Worcestershire, Thomas Attwood was the third of seven sons of Matthias Attwood, a prominent northern banker and industrialist in Birmingham.   After some schooling in Wolverhampton, Thomas Attwood entered his father's banking house of Attwoods & Spooner in Birmingham. The Attwoods - including Thomas, his older brother Matthias Junior and younger brother Charles - were active in civic life in Birmingham.

Thomas Attwood entered public sphere in 1811, at the age of 28, when he was elected to the position of High Bailiff of Birmingham. In 1812, Attwood led a delegation from Birmingham to petition parliament against the Orders in Council blocking trade with America, earning him great popularity with the artisans of Birmingham.  In 1813, he mounted a campaign against renewing the charter of the East India Company.  Attwood rose to national prominence during the anno horribilis of 1816.  Attwood wrote tracts (Remedy in 1816, followed up by the Prosperity Restored and Letter to Vansittart in 1817), analyzing the economic crisis in terms of underconsumption, and called for looser monetary policy (more paper currency) and government-funded public works to address the economic depression and problems of unemployment.  Attwood brothers organized a petition for relief, which was presented to parliament by Henry Brougham in 1817, and credited with inspiring Vansittart's programs in 1818.

Attwood's Observations (1818) are perhaps his most reflective work.  In 1819, Thomas's older brother Matthias entered parliament for a rotten borough.  The Attwood brothers opposed the Peel Committee of 1819's decision to resume convertibility, believing it an unnecessarily destructive contraction. While Matthias dueled with Peel in parliament,  Thomas's Letters (1819) denounced the resumption act more publicly.  Attwood testified before the House committee on agricultural distress in 1821. 

Believing that proper national economic policy, mindful of the needs of the urban merchant and working classes, would not be conducted by a parliament dominated by landed interests, Thomas Attwood became heavily involved in movement for Parliamentary Reform.  In late 1829, Attwood founded the "Political Union of the Lower and Middle Classes of the People" in Birmingham towards that end.  After Parliament Reform succeeded in 1832, Thomas Attwood was elected as Birmingham's first member of parliament.  Attwood served in parliament for several years, and kept pressing his views on currency at every opportunity.  Among Attwood's notable acts in parliament was the presentation of the monster Chartist petition in June 1839.  Disappointed at its defeat, Attwood resigned from parliament and retired from political life at the end of that year.

 

  

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Major Works of Thomas Attwood

  • [Anon] The Remedy; or, thoughts on the present distresses. in a letter to a public editor. July 3d, 1816, 1816 [bk] [2nd ed]
  • [Anon] Prosperity Restored, or, Reflections on the cause of the public distresses, and on the only means of relieving them, 1817 [bk, av]
  • A Letter to the Right Honourable Nicholas Vansittart, on the Creation of Money, and on its action upon national prosperity, 1817 [bk]
  • Observations on Currency, Population and Pauperiism, in two letters to Arthur Young, Esq., 1818 [bk, av]
  • A Letter to the Earl of Liverpool, on the reports of the Committees of the two Houses of Parliament, on the questions of the Bank Restriction Act, 1819 [bk]
  • A Second Letter to the Earl of Liverpool on the Bank Reports, as occasioning the national dangers and distresses, 1819 [bk]
  • "Evidence of Thomas Attwood before the Select Committee on the Depressed State of Agriculture", 1821, Report, p.242
  • The Late Prosperity, and the Present Adversity of the Country, explained: the proper remedies considered, and the comparative merits of the English and Scottish systems of banking discussed in a correspondence between Sir John Sinclair and Mr. Thomas Attwood, 1826 [bk, av] (debate with Sir John Sinclair)
  • Exposition of the cause and remedy of the Agricultural Distress, 1828
  • [Anon] The Scotch banker, containing articles under that signature republished from the Globe newspaper, with some additional articles, 1828 [bk, av] [1832 2nd ed]
  • Distressed State of the Country: The Speech of Thomas Attwood, Esq., on this important subject, at the Town's Meeting in Birmingham, held on the 8th day of May, 1829, 1829 [bk]
  • before the House of Commons on the Bank Charter, 1832 [Digest, p.160]
  • Report of the important discussion held in Birmingham, August the 28th and 29th, 1832, between William Cobbett, Thomas Attwood, and Charles Jones, Esqrs. on the question whether it is best for the safety and welfare of the nation to attempt to relieve the existing distress "by an action on the currency," or by an "equitable adjustment" of the taxes, rents, debts, contracts and obligations, which now strangle the industry of the country?, 1832 [bk] (debate with Cobbett)

 
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Resources on Thomas Attwood

  • A Letter to Mr. Attwood on the currency question by Captain Forman, R. N. [av]
  • The Currency Question: The Gemeni Letters, 1844 [bk]
  • "Attwood, Thomas" in C. Coquelin and G.U. Guillaumin, editors, 1852, Dictionnaire de l'économie politique [1864 ed.]
  • "Attwood, Thomas" in R.H. Inglis Palgrave, editor, 1894-1899, Dictionary of Political Economy [1918 ed.]
  • "Attwood, Tomas" n H.D. Macleod, 1863, Dictionary of Political Economy: Biographical, bibliographical, historical and practical, vol.1
  • "Attwood, Thomas" in 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  • "Thomas Attwood", 1879, Birmingham Daily Mail, [repr. in Robinson, 1903, Attwood Family, p.80]
  • Life of Thomas Attwood by C.M. Wakefield [bk, av]
  • Thomas Atwood: Biography of a radical by David J. Moss, 1990
  • Attwood page at Spartacus Educational
  • Attwood page and Political Union page at Parliament.co.uk
  • Attwood page at Britannica
  • Wiki

 

 
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