Political Economy

Hodgson was a leading educational reformer. Educated at the University of Edinburgh, he was later Principal of the Liverpool Mechanics' Institute, and of Chorlton High School, Manchester.

In 1871 he was appointed as the first Professor of Commercial and Political Economy and Mercantile Law at the University of Edinburgh; unlike all the other Chairs of the day this was a fixed-term appointment of seven years. His classes were popular, even though his subject was not part of any degree curriculum, and he accepted re-appointment in 1878. He died suddenly two years later while attending a conference in Brussels.