[3] He escaped the near-choiceless world of his youth through academic brilliance and, ultimately, by winning the 1878 Brackenbury history scholarship to Balliol College, which was then pursuing social uplift policies under the mastership of the legendary Benjamin Jowett.

[6] The inaugural lecture he gave there was dedicated to Gustav Schmoller, one of the German scholars in whose hands economic history was more developed in Germany than it was in England.

Ashley said in 1902 that the aim of the new Faculty was the education not of the "rank and file, but of the officers of the industrial and commercial army: of those who, as principals, directors, managers, secretaries, heads of department, etc., will ultimately guide the business activity of the country."

Even then he recognised the importance of the international context in which business operated, wanting his graduates to be able to understand the background to the political and economic policies of other countries.

[9] From 1900 to 1906, Ashley wielded some political influence on the Conservative government's economic policy, notably supporting Joseph Chamberlain's plans for Tariff Reform.

[10] Chamberlain's biographer, Peter Marsh, said, "[b]y all accounts the most persuasive book-length rationale for tariff reform, Ashley's work commanded the respect even of John Morley".

[11] In his 1904 book, The Progress of the German Working Class in the Last Quarter of a Century, Ashley argued that tariffs in Germany had ensured employment and that they had also raised revenue for social insurance and old age pensions.

Despite being now very elderly and supposedly retired for the benefit of his health, he was once again instrumental in the founding of a major movement; The Economic History Society.

Sir William Ashley duly became the first President of the Society, and his paper at the foundation meeting was published as the first article in the first number of the Economic History Review.