Decker, SIR MATTHEW

Decker, SIR MATTHEW, a political economist, was born at Amsterdam in 1679. He came to London in 1702, and having embarked in commerce, attained the greatest success; received a baronetcy in 1716, and subsequently sat in parliament. He died 18th March 1749. He published anonymously two pamphlets which were much discussed: one (in 1743) proposed to raise all the public supplies from a tax upon houses; the other, on the decline of Britain's foreign trade (1744), contained many good arguments for free trade.