Leone Levi

Leone Levi
Grave of Leone Levi inHighgate Cemetery
Born	6 June 1821 Ancona,Italy
Died	7 May 1888 (aged 66) Highbury,England
Nationality	English
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	University of Tübingen
Occupation(s)	Jurist, Statistician
Known for	Chair of Commercial Law at King's College London
Notable work	Commercial Law of the World,History of British Commerce and of the Economic Progress of the British Nation, 1763-1870

Leone Levi(6 June 1821 – 7 May 1888) was anEnglishjurist andstatistician.

Born to aJewishfamily inAncona,Italy,he worked in commerce there before emigrating toLiverpoolin 1844. There he obtained British citizenship and joined thePresbyterian church.

At the time, English law regarding the establishment of localchambers of commercewas highly unsystematic and wanting. He therefore advocated their institution in numerous pamphlets, leading to the establishment of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce in 1849, with Levi as its secretary. In 1850 he published hisCommercial Law of the World,an exhaustive comparative treatise upon the laws and codes of mercantile countries. Appointed in 1852 to the chair of commercial law atKing's College London,he was a popular instructor who innovated evening classes.

Levi was called to the bar atLincoln's Innin 1859, and a doctorate inpolitical sciencefrom theUniversity of Tübingen.His chief work,History of British Commerce and of the Economic Progress of the British Nation, 1763-1870,is considered to be a partisan account of British economic development, but its value as a work of reference cannot be gainsaid. His other works include:Work and Pay;Wages and Earnings of the Working Classes;andInternational Law, with Materials for a Code.See also The Liquor Trades: A Report to M.T. Bass, M.P., on the Capital Invested and Number of Persons Employed Therein (1871).

He died at his home inHighburyon 7 May 1888 and was buried in the eastern side ofHighgate Cemetery.

References

• Rubin, G. R. "Levi, Leone".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16551.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Levi, Leone".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 511.

External links

• The Story of My Life: The First Ten Years of My Residence in England, 1845-1855at theInternet Archive