ABSTRACT

Thomas Watts of London may well in 1716 have been the first English author of a booklet devoted specifically to commercial education. Thomas Watts quotes a passage from John Locke’s influential treatise on proper tutorial instruction for the young gentleman, extolling the utility of “Merchants’ Accompts” to the property holder. A year before his essay originated, Thomas Watts had opened a school on Abchurch-Lane in London to qualify young men for “Trades, Merchandize, the Public Offices, Clerkships, Stewardships, or any other Parts of Business.” Teaching subjects at the academy around 1722 included writing and arithmetic, merchants accounts, geography, navigation, algebra and geometry, mensuration, and surveying, costing from two to six guineas each. By 1727, a year after poet James Thomson had served as a resident tutor, at least five new instructors had joined the academy staff. The academy founded by Thomas Watts in 1715 survived into the nineteenth century.