Royal charter
The secretary of the BEA, Henry Higgs, proposed that the council apply for royal charter ten years after its inauguration. Ten volumes of the "Economic Journal" were presented to King Edward VII, with the request that he become Patron of the Society. Royal charter was duly granted on 2 December 1902. The charter indicated the society’s work to further economic science, its collection of a specialist library and its publication of a journal, saying: