Background
He was born in Edinburgh on 11 June 1743. He was the eighth son of Gavin Hamilton, a bookseller and publisher.
He was born in Edinburgh on 11 June 1743. He was the eighth son of Gavin Hamilton, a bookseller and publisher.
Having completed his education at the High School, Edinburgh, and the University of Edinburgh, where he was distinguished in mathematics, Robert was induced to enter a banking-house in order to acquire a practical knowledge of business, but his ambition was really academic.
Robert was the son of the Edinburgh bookseller Gavin Hamilton. In 1769 he gave up business pursuits and accepted the rectorship of Perth Academy. In 1779 he was presented to the chair of natural philosophy at the University of Aberdeen.
In 1816 he was presented to the latter chairman
Hamilton"s most important work is the Essay on the National Debt, which appeared in 1813 and was undoubtedly the first to expose the economic fallacies involved in Pitt"s policy of a sinking fund. lieutenant is still of value.
A posthumous volume published in 1830, The Progress of Society, is also of great ability, and is a very effective treatment of economical principles by tracing their origin and position in the development of social life. Some minor works of a practical character (Introduction to Merchandise, 1777.
Essay on War and Peace, 1790) are now forgotten.
