Nicolaas Gerard Pierson (7 February 1839 – 24 December 1909) was a Dutch economist and Liberal statesman who served as the chairman of the Council of Ministers (Prime Minister) of the Netherlands from 1897 until 1901. Pierson was a professor economics and statistics at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

and director and presiding director (''president-directeur'') of the

De Nederlandsche Bank De Nederlandsche Bank NV (DNB) is the central bank of the Netherlands. Founded by King William I in 1814, it is part of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB). De Nederlandsche Bank is a public limited company ( Dutch: '' naamloze vennoot ...

, the Dutch national bank. He was minister of Finance in the

Cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...

Van Tienhoven. During his term of office he introduced an important tax revision. After serving as chairman of the Council of Ministers for four years he took a seat in the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

for the constituency of Gorinchem from 1905 to 1909. Pierson received an honorary doctorate from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Early life and education

Nicolaas Gerard Pierson was born in Amsterdam on 7 February 1839, to Jan Lodewijk Gregory Pierson and his wife Ida Oyens. The youngest of six children, Pierson had two brothers and three sisters. Two of his brothers, Allard and

Hendrik Pierson Hendrik Pierson (10 July 1834 – 7 August 1923) was a Dutch Lutheran minister and member of the Réveil religious revival movement. He was president of the Ottho Gerhard Heldringstichting, an asylum for reformed prostitutes, from 1877 to 1914. ...

, would become famous pastors. His father was a merchant, while his mother was a Réveil writer. Pierson attended a French school in Amsterdam from 1845 to 1853. He went to an English school in Brussels in 1853, but switched to a trade school in Amsterdam a year later. On 2 June 1864, Pierson graduated as a teacher in

political economy Political economy is the study of how economic systems (e.g. markets and national economies) and political systems (e.g. law, institutions, government) are linked. Widely studied phenomena within the discipline are systems such as labour ...

Career

Pierson started his career as a merchant. He worked in his father's glass shop from 1860 to 1861, and owned a business selling colonial goods, ''Beckman en Pierson'', from 1861 to 1864. Shortly before his graduation, on 1 April 1864, he became chief executive of ''

De Surinaamsche Bank ''De Surinaamsche Bank'' (DSB; Bank of Suriname in English), is the largest bank in Suriname. History Simon Abendanon founded De Surinaamsche Bank (DSB) on 19 January 1865 in Paramaribo, and it opened for business on 18 July 1865 in the home of o ...

'', and director of ''

'' on 1 June 1868. On 15 January 1885, he was appointed as President of ''De Nederlandsche Bank'' by Royal Decree. He took office 1 February the same year, and kept his position until 21 Augustus 1891. Aside from his career in the financial sector, he also taught political economy at a trade school in Amsterdam from 1864 to 1868, and political economy and statistics at the

from 1877 and 1885. Pierson's main two economist texts were ''Grondbeginselen der Staathuiskunde'' and ''Leerboek der Staathuiskunde'', the latter being translated into English and Italian. In 1883 Pierson became member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

. Pierson served as minister of Finance from 21 August 1891 to 9 May 1894, and again from 26 July 1897 to 1 August 1901. During his second his second term as minister, he was also the chairman of the Council of Ministers, a positional that would later be dubbed

Prime Minister of the Netherlands The prime minister of the Netherlands ( nl, Minister-president van Nederland) is the head of the executive branch of the Government of the Netherlands. Although the monarch is the ''de jure'' head of government, the prime minister ''de facto'' ...

. During his time as minister, he reformed the corporate and capital tax systems, and was instrumental in the establishment of

Statistics Netherlands Statistics Netherlands, founded in 1899, is a Dutch governmental institution that gathers statistical information about the Netherlands. In Dutch it is known as the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (''Central Agency for Statistics''), often ...

, the national statistical office. On 26 July 1905, Pierson was elected into the

for the constituency of Gorinchem. He did not seek election in 1909, giving up his seat on 1 August.

Socialist calculation debate

Pierson is credited with an important role in the Socialist calculation debate, when he criticised

Karl Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theorist. Kautsky was one of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels ...

, who had delivered a speech in

Delft Delft () is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolita ...

in 1902. Entitled ''The Problem of Value in the Socialist Community'',See: * * English translation: this attracted little attention outside the Netherlands until it appeared in English translation in

Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Hayek ...

's ''Collectivist Economic Planning,'' (1935).

Family

On 30 October 1862, Pierson married Catharina Rutgera Waller in Amsterdam. She died shortly after their marriage, and the couple remained childless. Pierson died on 24 December 1909, in

Heemstede Heemstede () is a town and a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the fourth richest municipality of the Netherlands. History Heemstede formed around the Castle ''Heemstede'' that was built overlooking the ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pierson, Nicolaas Gerard 1839 births 1909 deaths Businesspeople from Amsterdam Liberal Union (Netherlands) politicians Presidents of the Central Bank of the Netherlands Prime Ministers of the Netherlands Ministers of Finance of the Netherlands Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Dutch bankers Dutch members of the Dutch Reformed Church