Walter Bagehot
Walter Bagehot was an influential English writer and economist, born on February 3, 1826, in Langport, Somersetshire. He was raised in a middle-class family that valued hard work and thrift, which shaped his pragmatic approach to life. Bagehot pursued studies in intellectual and moral philosophy at University College, London, where he began publishing essays in the Prospective Review. After briefly studying law, he chose to work in the family banking business, believing it would provide a stable foundation for his literary pursuits. This decision proved fruitful as he continued to write and edit the National Review, and he later became the editor of The Economist, enhancing its reputation. Bagehot's most notable work, "The English Constitution," published in 1867, is recognized as a classic commentary on Victorian parliamentary democracy. Despite his literary successes, his health declined in the late 1860s, ultimately leading to his passing in 1877. His writings continue to be respected for their insights into economics, politics, and society.
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Walter Bagehot
Business Person
- Born: February 3, 1826
- Birthplace: Langport, Somerset, England
- Died: March 24, 1877
- Place of death: England
Biography
Walter Bagehot (pronounced “Badge-utt”) was born in Langport, Somersetshire, England, on February 3, 1826, the son of Thomas Watson Bagehot, a successful country banker, and Edith Stuckey Bagehot. Hard work, perseverance, and thrift were values instilled and reinforced in him during his solid middle-class upbringing. He left home at age sixteen to pursue studies in intellectual and moral philosophy at University College, London, receiving his first degree in 1846, then earning his master’s degree there in 1848.
It was during graduate school that he published his first writings in the Prospective Review in November, 1847, followed by additional articles published there following year. He then suspended pursuit of his literary ambitions while studying for the bar. In 1852, he was called to the bar, but instead eschewed the profession of law to instead return to Langport to join his father in the banking business, as he believed that a legal career would not leave him sufficient time or energy for his writing pursuits.
Though he had strong literary ambitions, his pragmatic, responsible nature would not allow him to risk his security on a career as a full-time writer. He regarded his banking profession as secure, and it also afforded him the broader perspective and insights which then served to enrich the perspective of his future writings. Though he understood how the demands of daily life could interfere with a writer’s work, he believed that an active career and worldly pursuits enhanced and infused his writings with insights unavailable to a socially sequestered writer.
As a happy result of his decision, his essays for the Prospective Review then began to reappear shortly after he joined the bank at Langport, and founded a new London quarterly, the National Review, a journal of moderate political and religious opinion, in 1855. His first book, a compilation of essays from the Prospective Review and the National Review, was published in 1858.
Bagehot met Eliza Wilson in January, 1857, at her family’s contry home near Bath, and proposed marriage in the fall of that year. She was the daughter of James Wilson, editor of The Economist and financial secretary to the treasury. The two were married on April 21, 1858. They moved to a large country home near Bristol, where a branch of the family bank was located. He managed the nearby bank while he continued to manage and contribute to the National Review.
Marriage and domestic tranquility seemed to have served him well. In one of his articles reviewing the work of the eighteenth century poet William Cowper, Bagehot shows his preference for a life of simple comforts in a comfortable English homestead. Walter Bagehot then became an early editor of The Economist, finally taking over in 1861 from his father-in- law. He expanded the publication’s reporting on politics and the United States, and is considered to have enhanced its reputation as a respected financial journal well regarded by policy makers. In 1867, Walter Bagehot wrote his most influential work, The English Constitution, which was widely regarded as a classic commentary on Victorian parliamentary democracy and was translated into several languages.
By the end of the 1860’s, his enormous workload as a writer and editor began to take its toll on his health. At Christmastime, 1867, he became quite ill, apparently from an attack of pneumonia. He suffered a general decline in health for the next three years as he struggled to recover from his initial illness. As a result, his compromised health also served to slow down his writing productivity. Physics and Politics, his treatise on the relationships between the social and natural sciences, took over five years to write due to his ailing health.Lombard Street, a study of the English banking system, was published in 1873. At age fifty-one, Walter Bagehot came down with another serious chest cold and after a short illness died in 1877.