Thompson, William (1785–1833)

Irish economic theorist. A follower of the social reformer and founder of the cooperative movement, Robert Owen, Thompson called for the redistribution of wealth and denounced unearned income and private property. His awareness of capital as the product of labour influenced Karl Marx and the Irish trade-union leader James Connolly. Thompson also actively espoused the cause of sexual equality.

Thompson was born in Rosscarbery, into a wealthy property-owning family. His major works were An Enquiry into the Principles of the Distribution of Wealth Most Conducive to Human Happiness (1824), and Appeal of One Half of the Human Race, Women, against the Pretentions of the Other Half, Men, to Retain them in Political, and thence in Civil and Domestic, Slavery (1825). He bequeathed most of his estate to the cooperative movement, but his will was challenged and overturned by his relatives after years of litigation.