William Ballantyne Hodgson was born in Edinburgh on 6 October 1815. He was educated at the Royal High School in the city. After working briefly at a lawyer's office he entered Edinburgh University in 1829. He did not graduate but did employ himself lecturing around Fife on literature, education and phrenology. In 1870, Hodgson was in Bournemouth and the following year in July 1871 he was elected as the first occupant of the Chair of Commercial and Political Economy and Mercantile Law at Edinburgh University. In 1875 he was made President of the Educational Institute of Scotland. Professor William Ballantyne Hodgson died in Brussels on 24 August 1880 while attending an education congress there. Spine faded, unopened signatures. An errata slip has been tipped-in before the first chapter.