Ashley, William James
Ashley, William James
Born Feb. 25, 1860, in Bermondsey; died July 23, 1927, in Canterbury. English historian and economist; an adherent of the historical economic school in English bourgeois historiography.
Ashley was educated at Oxford. From 1888 to 1892 he was a professor of political and constitutional history at the University of Toronto (Canada); from 1892 to 1901, professor of economic history at Harvard University; and from 1900 to 1925, professor of commerce and finance at the University of Birmingham. His main work, An Introduction to English Economic History and Theory (parts 1–2, 1888–93; Russian translation, Moscow, 1897), is devoted to the economic development of England in the Middle Ages (up to the 16th century). In this and other works, Ashley treated the history of human society as a regular process of evolution.
WORKS
Early History of the English Woolen Industry. New York 1887.An Introduction to English Economic History and Theory, parts 1–2. Toronto, 1888–93.
The Tariff Problem, 4th ed. London, 1920.
The Bread of Our Forefathers. Oxford, 1928.
The Economic Organization of England, 3rd ed. London, 1949.
Surveys, Historic and Economic. New York, 1966.