He described his library as a collection of books and tracts intended to serve as the basis for the study of the industrial, commercial, monetary and financial history of the United Kingdom as well as of the gradual development of economic science generally.

When The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths purchased the library of economic literature from Foxwell in 1901 for £10,000 it contained about 30,000 books.

From the sale in 1901, Foxwell kept back duplicates that formed a second collection which he sold to Harvard University for £4,000 in 1929.

By the time of his death, Foxwell had amassed a further 20,000 volumes that were sold to Harvard University creating the focus for the Kress Library.

[2][3][4] Foxwell is known for his attack on the legacy of Ricardo,[5] who he says introduced a “wrong twist” into mainstream economics, giving "modern socialism its fancied scientific basis" through his "crude generalisation".