prof.mr. Nicolaas Gerard Pierson

Nicolaas Gerard Pierson (Amsterdam, 7 February 1839 – Heemstede, 24 December 1909) was a Dutch Liberal financial and economic expert, politician, and statesman, chairman of the Council of Ministers (prime minister) of the Netherlands from 1897 until 1901. Pierson was a professor economics and statistics at the University of Amsterdam and director and presiding director (president-directeur) of the De Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch national bank. He was minister of Finance in the Cabinet Van Tienhoven. During his term of office he introduced an important tax revision. After serving as chairman of the Council of Ministers for four years he took a seat in the House of Representatives for the constituency of Gorinchem from 1905 to 1909. Pierson received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge.

Pierson married in 1862 to Catharina Rutgera Waller, with whom he had no children. [edit]Work

Pierson's main two economist texts were Grondbeginselen der Staathuiskunde and Leerboek der Staathuiskunde, the latter being translated into English and Italian. He was also essential in laying the foundations for the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek.

Head of the firm Beckman en Pierson, which traded in cotton and colonial wares, from 1861-1864 alongside H.B. Wiardi Beckman. [edit]