James Munro (7 January 1832 – 25 February 1908) was a Scottish born Australian businessman and colonial politician, and the 15th Premier of Victoria.

[1][2] He is best known as one of the leading figures in the land boom of the 1880s and especially the subsequent crash of the early 1890s, where his Christian morals were seen to clash with his business activities.

[5] After a primary education at a village school in Armadale, Sutherland, Munro left home for Edinburgh and joined a firm of publishers.

By 1870, he was a very wealthy man, and he continued to engage in speculation, particularly in land, after entering politics, as was then the common practice.

In the boom years of the 1880s, the idea of "temperance hotels", that provided accommodation, dining rooms etc., but did not serve alcohol, was taken up with gusto in Australia, where they were usually called Coffee Palaces, and Munro was leading exponent.

Unlike many of the Land Boomers, he had a reputation for stern Scots integrity, and as the Boom faded in 1890 he emerged as leader of the opposition to the government of Duncan Gillies.

In February 1892 Munro, who was deeply in debt, asked his Cabinet to appoint him Victorian Agent-General in London.

When the news broke there was a storm of protest, led by the many investors whose savings had been wiped out in Munro's companies.