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Disgrifiad

Richard Price was the sole offspring of the second marriage of Rhys Price, a rigid Calvinistic minister, unmercifully intolerant of the wider views of his youngest son, which he resolved to crush by disinheritance. Richard from early youth was trained for the ministry. At the age of 18, and shortly after the death of his father, he resolved to go to London to complete his education under the supervision of an uncle.

A few years later he came into prominence at the Royal Society with a thesis upon the theorem “That the probability in favour of a hypothesis is proportional to the probability which that hypothesis gives to observe events.” This was followed by another contribution to the Royal Society transactions upon the “Expectation of lives,” which turned out to be the foundation of the modern life assurance societies.
How striking is the contrast between this somewhat unimaginative record and the daring achievements of his intellectual life! For his mathematical speculations entitle him to be called the founder of life insurance; his mastery of the problems of national finance was almost unrivalled in his day; his political pamphlets vitally affected the struggle for American independence, he had profound influence on the growth of democratic ideas in England; he was a forerunner of Kant in certain branches of ethics, and he was one of the originators of the idea of Progress.

In 1776 Dr. Price entered the avenue of political discourse with such effect that he became the greatest authority on political economy, and on more than one occasion his advice was sought by the leading politicians on matters if high finance. At the request of the House of Commons he prepared the first provident scheme for the poor which may be said to be the prototype of our modern Old Age Pensions Act.

It is recorded that at his death, which occurred in 1791, three million French people went into mourning for him, and the patriotic society of Nantes resolved to place a bust of him in their assembly hall by the side of the “Declaration of the rights of Men.” Furthermore, they decided to name one of the quarters of the town “Le Quartier de Richard Price.”

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