Robert Torrens (economist)

Robert Torrens FRS (1780 – 27 May 1864) was a Royal Marines officer, political economist, part-owner of the influential Globe newspaper, and a prolific writer.

His son, Sir Robert Richard Torrens, spent many years in South Australia, even serving for a short time as the state Premier, and became known for his land reform.

He achieved renown in 1811 by overseeing the defence of the Baltic island of Anholt against superior Danish forces[5] in the Walcheren Expedition, during which he was severely wounded and was awarded the title of brevet major for his bravery.

[6] After divesting the island in August 1812, the garrison was redeployed to Northern Spain in the winter of 1812 with Major James Malcolm, alongside Spanish forces.

[12][13][14] He is referred to as "Colonel Torrens" in Hansard from November 1826[15] to August 1832,[16] and in the report of the 1831 parliamentary select committee on steam carriages, on which he sat (published in 1834).

His advocacy of reciprocity rather than unconditional free trade in the 1840s was highly controversial, and he was later cited as a precursor by supporters of Joseph Chamberlain's tariff reform campaign.

[21][22][23] He was also interested in Thomas Peel's Swan River Colony (1829), but he only became personally involved in actual emigration schemes with the South Australian Land Company in 1831.

He made little effort to help George Gawler, who had been appointed Resident Commissioner and Governor after John Hindmarsh's departure, with little financial assistance from England.

Torrens was sacked in 1841 (although at the time, Gawler was made the main scapegoat for the province's woes) and the South Australia Act 1842 brought the colony under the direct rule of the Crown.

[citation needed] The Annual Register says: "He was an indefatigable writer; the productions of his pen, which include a great variety of tracts on subjects of political economy, some able pamphlets on the currency, and some literary efforts of a lighter class, extend over a period of fifty years.

He was a skilful and lucid writer, and succeeded in throwing considerable light upon some of those abstruse questions connected with monetary science which are the stumbling block of economical students.