Dudley North (economist)

Sir Dudley North (16 May 1641 in Westminster – 31 December 1691 in London) was an English merchant, politician, economist and writer on free trade.

During the Tory reaction under Charles II he was one of the sheriffs forced on the city of London in 1683 with an express view to securing verdicts for the crown in state trials.

Having been elected a member of parliament in 1685 for Banbury under James II, he took, says Roger North, the place of manager for the crown in all matters of revenue.

They had one surviving son, Dudley North, who succeeded to Glemham, and married Katherine Yale, daughter of Gov.

In this assertion of the free-trade doctrine against the system of prohibitions which had gained strength by the Revolution, North shows that wealth may exist independently of gold or silver, its source being human industry, applied either to the cultivation of the soil or to manufactures.

[3] North was named by Wilhelm Roscher as one of the triumvirate of the 17th century English school of economists to the foremost place in Europe, the others being John Locke and William Petty.