Thomas Hodgskin

Labour Defended against the Claims of Capital Thomas Hodgskin

Thomas Hodgskin (1787-1869) Disgusted by the horrors of naval discipline, he first made a name by his attack on the navy, and established what was essentially an anarchist criticism of society. Turning to writing, he travelled extensively in Germany for the purpose of his book on that country. His economic writings were based on the idea that labour is the sole source of wealth, and that the workers were deprived of their true share of the wealth they produced. His Popular Political Economy was derived from his controversial lectures to the London Mechanics Institute and constituted the first textbook of socialist economics. In later life he was a frequent contributor to the Economist.