Front Page Groups & Collections The Manchester School

School of Thought: The Manchester School

The name “Manchester School” is given to the group of economists, businessmen, and lobbyists who campaigned in England in the mid-19th century for free trade, reduced government regulation of the economy (in othe words for a policy of laissez-faire), and an non-interventionist foreign policy (the so-called “Little Englanders”). They got their name from the fact that some of their leading members, such as Ricahrd Cobden, were manufacturers based in the English industrial city of Manchester.

For more information see:

• Norman McCord, The Anti-Corn Law League, 1838-1846 (Lodnon: Unwin University Books, 1968).
• Nicholas C. Edsall, Richard Cobden: Independent Radical (Harvard University Press, 1986).
• William D. Grampp, The Manchester School of Economics (Stanford University Press, 1960).

For additional information about the Manchester School see in the Forum: Timeline on the Manchester School.

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