A new analysis from the Competitive Enterprise Institute examines how James Wilson, founder of *The Economist* in 1843, converted much of England to the free trade cause not by stoking fear, but by providing facts and trusting readers' reason. According to CEI's Justin Liu, Wilson's approach created a political consensus against trade barriers that lasted until the early 1900s, offering lessons for today's polarized tariff debates. The report highlights how Wilson, a manufacturer and exporter who witnessed free trade's benefits firsthand, distinguished himself from protectionist demagogues through clear communication, sharp insight, and reliance on data.
Wilson was born in 1805 in Hawick, Scotland, and built a prosperous mercantile career without attending university, capitalizing on the town's transformation from a borderland backwater into an industrial hub. By 1837, he was worth an estimated £3 million in today's money, but lost everything that year when indigo prices suddenly collapsed. After soothing creditors by selling assets, he recovered financially and in 1844 retired from business to focus on *The Economist*, which became an immediate success. He later entered Parliament and began balancing British India's budget before dying in 1860.
The report identifies three distinguishing aspects of *The Economist* from its start: clear communication, sharp insight, and reliance on facts. According to the analysis, Wilson communicated in "simple, vigorous prose" because he sincerely believed in laissez-faire economics. His biographer Walter Bagehot noted Wilson had a "business-imagination" that was lacking in those who start economic arguments with abstract island scenarios. Wilson once reminisced that he became "well acquainted—with the middle classes of this country" as well as working classes and foreign commerce in nearly all parts of the world. Most significantly, *The Economist* was the first weekly news magazine in England to regularly publish statistical data.
Wilson's data-driven approach proved decisive in defeating Britain's protectionist Corn Laws. His 1839 pamphlet against the laws grounded arguments in data on export volumes, trade routes, and crop prices rather than demagogic appeals. According to historian Richard Spall, this amounted to "the most sophisticated analysis" of its time, proving repeal would cause profits, wages, and crop prices to rise. The report notes Wilson introduced the economic argument that everyone benefited from general prosperity, steering the controversy away from class interest. This framework carried into *The Economist's* founding prospectus, which declared that "FREE TRADE, free intercourse, will do more than any other visible agent to extend civilization and morality throughout the world". Wilson promised to lead with articles applying free-trade principles to important questions, then prove through sector-by-sector reporting that free trade was logical across the economy.
The CEI analysis concludes that Wilson viewed free trade as a logical conclusion, practical necessity, political imperative, and moral obligation, but wouldn't meet protectionists at their level. Instead, he used practical examples to raise the standard of debate, relying on facts, logic, and sound economics to persuade others. According to Liu, today's writers, politicians, and activists can learn from Wilson's refusal to resort to fear-mongering or appeals to narrow self-interest. By showing readers what was happening, explaining why it mattered, and equipping them to draw broader conclusions themselves, Wilson created a durable shift in public opinion that modern advocates of open markets still seek to emulate.