Goschen, George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount

Goschen, George Joachim Goschen, 1st Viscount (gō`shən), 1831–1907, British statesman. A leading financier, he was elected (1863) to Parliament as a Liberal and was first lord of the admiralty (1871–74). In 1876 he negotiated the establishment of Anglo-French control over Egypt's finances. He later served (1880–81) as ambassador to Turkey. Goschen was one of the leading Liberal Unionists, who in 1886 broke with William Gladstone over Irish Home Rule. As chancellor of the exchequer (1886–92) in the Conservative government he successfully converted the national debt and reduced currency stringencies, and as first lord of the admiralty (1895–1900) he supervised expansion of the navy.

Bibliography

See his Theory of Foreign Exchanges (1861; 4th ed., with biographical preface by B. F. Hopper, 1932); study by T. J. Spinner, Jr. (1973).