It is with great regret that we inform you of the passing of Anthony Brewer, eminent historian of economic thought. Tony was Emeritus Professor of the History of Economics at the University of Bristol where he taught for many years.

Trained at Cambridge as an economist, he originally published on technical change, labour-managed firms and international economics. From the 1980s onward, his studies increasingly turned to the earlier epochs of economic theory. His first book, published in 1980, was Marxist Theories of Imperialism, a Critical Survey, of which the second edition appeared in Japanese translation in 1991. His A Guide to Marx’s Capital (1984) was translated into Chinese in 1992.

During the later 1980s and throughout the 1990s he was a prolific author of articles and reviews dealing with many aspects of the emergence of political economy in Britain and France during the 18th century. Richard Cantillon: Pioneer of Economic Theory, a book-length study of one of his favourite early economists, was published in 1992. The Making of the Classical Theory of Economic Growth reprinted a number of his articles, together with an introduction that summarised his views on the formation of classical conceptions of economic growth, giving pride of place to Adam Smith and, to a lesser extent, Turgot, Hume and Ferguson.

Tony was an active propagator of the study of the history of economic thought. He ran Documents for the History of Economics, one of the earliest historical repositories of economic texts on the internet. In addition, he was a founding member of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought (ESHET), and over the years fulfilled roles as member of the Council and Executive Committee, and as Vice-President and General Secretary of that society. He served also as book review editor for the ESHET Bulletin and was the driving force behind the creation of the society’s website. In 2017 he was elected Honorary Member of ESHET.

Well-known and much-liked among historians of economic thought, Tony held visiting positions at Duke University (North Carolina), Antwerp University (Belgium) and Chuo University (Tokyo). He will be missed by many.