Fullarton, John (1780–1849)

Abstract

John Fullarton shared at least one characteristic with his great predecessor, Ricardo: he also seemed, in the words of Lord Brougham, ‘as if he had dropped from another planet’. Although Fullarton is described in the Dictionary of National Biography as a ‘traveller and writer on the currency’, travel occupied by far the greater proportion of his life, along with a keen interest in the world of art and literature. Yet the single published work on which his considerable reputation as an economist is based had an impact comparable with that of Ricardo’s intervention in the Bullion Controversy at the turn of the century.