Early Years at Cambridge
When admitted to King’s College in October 1896, Pigou fully exploited the prospects of academic and co-curricular activities open to students residing in Cambridge. In 1899 he received the Chancellor’s Gold Medal for English verse, which was awarded in recognition of his ode to Alfred the
Great, a literary treatment that refers to ‘truth’s bright star’ and ‘Reason’s light’. Later that year he obtained a First in the undivided Historical Tripos but, given his growing interest in economics and ethics, he then commenced Part II of the Moral Sciences Tripos, which he also completed with a First, in 1900.
In 1900, while studying for Part II of moral sciences, Pigou entered his essay on Robert Browning as a Religious Teacher into competition for the Burney Prize—awarded to the best essay submitted dealing with the philosophy of religion—which he won, with the essay subsequently published (Pigou 1901a). In the following year, Pigou’s dissertation on The Causes and Effects of Change in the Relative Values of Agricultural Produce in the United Kingdom during the Last Fifty Years (Pigou 1901b) was awarded the Cobden Prize.
As Pigou turned his mind to his future career, he decided to enter the Fellowship competition at King’s, which requires submission of a Fellowship thesis that is assessed by referees associated with the College.[1] In 1901, he submitted his Burney Prize—winning essay on Browning as his Fellowship thesis. While Marshall was not a referee for this Fellowship dissertation, he was nevertheless asked by the Provost of the College for his views on Pigou and wrote that ‘With perhaps one exception, I have never wished so strongly to see any student retained at Cambridge, as Pigou’ (Marshall to Leigh, 8 March 1901, quoted in McLure 2013a: 278). But notwithstanding this strong support from Marshall, the dissertation on Browning was not successful in obtaining a Fellowship for Pigou at King’s in 1901. In the following year, he submitted his Cobden Prize-winning dissertation to King’s as part of the Fellowship round and was successful.
Between being elected as a Fellow of King’s in 1902 and being appointed as the Professor of Political Economy at Cambridge in 1908, Pigou acquired new teaching duties that befitted a Fellow, initially by relieving Marshall from his general course in economics, then, more formally, as the Girdlers’ Lecturer in Economics at Cambridge from 1904 until 1907. During this time, he first emerged in debates on trade policy undertaken within the Cambridge Union. Notable in that regard was Pigou’s confrontation with the protectionist Sir Howard Vincent (Saltmarsh and Wilkinson 1960: 7), who had founded the United Empire Trade League in 1891.
Pigou’s 1908 appointment to a professorship was controversial. He was only 30 years of age upon succeeding Marshall and, although Pigou had shown great promise in the application of the theoretical tools that Marshall had developed, the extent of his experience and maturity of thought was limited by his young age. The other candidates—which included Herbert Foxwell at Cambridge, William Ashley at Birmingham and Edwin Cannan at the London School of Economics (LSE)—all had greater experience. The voting pattern of the electors is not known, although it is certain that Marshall was active in lobbying in Pigou’s favour and that some of the electors found this to be inappropriate, unwarranted and distressing.[2]
The period at Cambridge immediately before the First World War has been described as Pigou’s heyday (Saltmarsh and Wilkinson 1960: 19), but during the Great War his position attracted a considerable amount of ill will as Cambridge University made a special case to have Pigou exempted from military service on the grounds that his duties as Professor of Political Economy were indispensable. This decision was unsuccessfully contested at tribunal by others, including Foxwell (Aslanbeigui 1992). During the war, Pigou was a volunteer ambulance driver in France and Italy during breaks in the academic year.
