# Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/Cunningham, William

​CUNNINGHAM, WILLIAM (1849–1919), economic historian, was born at Edinburgh 29 December 1849, the third son of James Cunningham, writer to the signet, of Edinburgh. His mother, who was his father’s second wife, was Elizabeth Boyle, youngest daughter of Alexander Dunlop, of Keppoch, near Cardross. She was descended from ​William Dunlop, the elder [q.v.], a celebrated principal of Glasgow University in the reign of William III. Cunningham was educated at the Edinburgh Institution and Academy, and at the universities of Edinburgh, Tübingen, and Cambridge. He entered Caius College, Cambridge, in 1869, but won a scholarship at Trinity College in 1872 and read philosophy, being bracketed senior with Frederick William Maitland in the moral science tripos in 1872. He also won the Hulsean prize (1873) and the Maitland and Kaye prizes (1879). He was ordained in 1873, being successively curate of Horningsea, near Cambridge, chaplain of Trinity College (1880–1891), and curate of Great St. Mary’s church, Cambridge, of which he was vicar from 1887 to 1908. He was appointed archdeacon of Ely in 1907. A thoughtful and original preacher, he attracted large congregations. He was a proctor in convocation, took a considerable share in the work of the diocese, and was always ready to help the clergy in his archdeaconry, often taking their duty in order to enable them to enjoy an otherwise impossible holiday.
Through his appointment in 1878 as an examiner for the history tripos at Cambridge, Cunningham became impressed with the need for the teaching of economic history in the university. He undertook to teach the subject, but was embarrassed by the want of a suitable text-book. He accordingly set himself to supply the defect, a task of considerable magnitude since he had to begin at the roots of the subject. The result of this inquiry appeared in 1882 under the title of The Growth of English Industry and Commerce. This book established Cunningham’s reputation as an economic historian. In 1891 he was elected Tooke professor of economics and statistics at King’s College, London, an appointment which he held for six years. In the same year (1891) he was elected to a fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge. He also served for a time in 1899 as lecturer on economic history at Harvard University; he returned to the United States as Lowell lecturer in 1914. In addition he was Birkbeck and Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge (1885), an original fellow of the British Academy, and honorary fellow of Caius College (1895).
The six subsequent editions of The Growth of English Industry and Commerce (1892-1910) occupied much of Cunningham’s energies, since each edition was to a considerable extent a new book. In addition he developed certain aspects of the subject in separate treatises, as, for instance, Modern Civilization in some of its Economic Aspects (1896), Alien Immigrants to England (1897), and Western Civilization in its Economic Aspect in Ancient Times (1898), and in Medieval and Modern Times (1900).
Cunningham was a many-sided man. From 1872 he took an interest in social questions and wrote on them at various times. In 1884 he published Christian Opinion on Usury, An Alternative to Socialism (1885), The Gospel of Work (1902), The Moral Witness of the Church on the Investment of Wealth (1909), Christianity and Social Questions (1910), Christianity and Politics (1916), and Increase of True Religion (1917). He was also a great traveller, and journeyed not only throughout Europe, but in India, the Holy Land, South Africa, and the United States. This may have been the cause, or one of the causes, which made him an enthusiastic supporter of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain’s scheme for imperial preference. To popularize this scheme he wrote another group of works, amongst which may be mentioned The Case against Free Trade (1910).
Cunningham was a pioneer in the teaching and writing of the economic history of Great Britain. Adam Smith’s work had been largely historical, but under the dominance of the classical school of economists historical investigation had been pushed more and more into the background. Probably what lay deepest in Cunningham’s mind was the conception that economic inquiry had to be related to economic progress, and that in order to secure this it was necessary to get at the facts. At the same time Cunningham’s point of view was quite distinct from that of the historical school in Germany, in so far as he desired to see and, indeed, insisted on seeing the facts group themselves in an orderly process of development.
Cunningham married in 1876 his first cousin, Adèle Rebecca, daughter of Andrew Anderson Dunlop, of Dublin. They had one son and one daughter. He died at Cambridge 10 June 1919.
[William Cunningham, Progress of Capitalism in England (containing a bibliography of his works on economic subjects), 1916; H. S. Foxwell, Archdeacon Cunningham, and Lilian Knowles, Dr. Cunningham, in Economic Journal, vol. xxix, 1919; Edinburgh Academy Chronicle, July 1919; W. R. Scott, William Cunningham, 1849-1919, in Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. ix, 1920; private information.]
W. R. S.