James Anderson

James Anderson FRSE FSAScot (1739 – 15 October 1808) was a Scottish agriculturist, journalist and economist. A member of the Edinburgh Philosophical Society, Anderson was a prominent figure in the Scottish Enlightenment. He invented the Scotch plough. As a writer he adopted the nom de plume of Agricola. Life Anderson was born at Hermiston, Midlothian the son of a farmer and while still young attended lectures on chemistry by William Cullen, at the University of Edinburgh. At the age of 15, after the death of his father, he took over the working of the ancestral farm. In 1768 he moved to Aberdeenshire to manage the farm of Monkshill on land owned by Mr. Udny of Udny under a long lease granted to him for the purpose of demonstrating the benefits of improved agriculture. Economic theorist