Sir Matthew Decker, image based on portrait by Theodorus Netscher (1661-1728), Fitzwilliam Museum
Before Adam Smith ever formulated his theories on market forces, an Amsterdam-born merchant in London was already setting the groundwork for modern free trade. His name was Sir Matthew Decker, and his life brought together high finance, radical political economy, and an unexpected passion for tropical horticulture.
From Amsterdam linen merchant to London financier
Decker was born in Amsterdam in 1679 as Mattijs Decker. His grandfather had worked as a linen bleacher near Haarlem, and Decker received a rigorous commercial education in the Dutch Republic under Burgomaster Velters. At age 23, he relocated to London in 1702, quickly establishing himself in the linen trade.
His commercial network expanded rapidly across the Channel. By 1710, Decker was the London correspondent for major Dutch banking houses, including Pels of Amsterdam. That stature propelled him directly into British corporate and political life. He served as an original director of the South Sea Company from 1711 to 1712, subscribing nearly £50,000 in shares before shifting his attention. In 1713, he was elected a director of the East India Company, remaining in its leadership for three decades until 1743 while repeatedly holding office as Governor and Chairman. King George I created him a baronet on 20 July 1716, after which Decker sat unopposed as Member of Parliament for Bishop's Castle from 1719 to 1722 and served as Sheriff of Surrey in 1729.
When the South Sea Bubble collapsed in late 1720, Decker chose public stability over recrimination. Speaking to the Court of Directors of the East India Company in December 1720, he supported Robert Walpole's proposal to restore public credit by ingrafting South Sea stock into the Bank of England and the East India Company. Decker famously declared he would surrender his own property in the company down to basic subsistence if it meant rescuing the nation from widespread financial ruin.
A radical vision for free trade and taxation
Decker made his most enduring mark through two economic treatises: Serious Considerations on the Several High Duties (1743) and An Essay on the Causes of the Decline of the Foreign Trade (1744). At a time when Europe relied on mercantilist protections, heavy tariffs, and monopolistic restrictions, Decker argued that such barriers actively damaged national wealth (3).
His core proposals anticipated classical economics by decades. He urged the complete abolition of import duties and export bounties, demonstrating how customs fees strangled commercial volume, inflated domestic manufacturing costs, and encouraged rampant smuggling. To protect treasury revenue without burdening commerce, he proposed replacing trade duties with a single direct tax levied on houses. Furthermore, rather than taxing tea and similar luxury imports at border ports, Decker suggested simple annual household licences to consume them, which neatly eliminated the profit margins of black-market smugglers. These proposals established Decker as one of the direct intellectual predecessors to Adam Smith, proving that practical traders often recognized the benefits of unhindered markets long before theoretical treatises became standard reading.
Greenhouses, pineapples, and cultural legacy
At his estate on Richmond Green, Decker built extensive gardens complete with formal canals, evergreens, and heated "stove-houses." Managed by his gardener Henry Telende, these greenhouses achieved a horticultural breakthrough: successfully growing and ripening pineapples on English soil. In 1720, Decker commissioned painter Theodorus Netscher to depict his prize specimen, which was presented to King George I.
Decker was also an early backer of the Royal Academy of Music in 1719, commissioning works from composers like George Frideric Handel, and built a substantial collection of Dutch art. When Decker died on 18 March 1749, his estate passed to his daughter Catherine, and later to his grandson, Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam. The collection and wealth inherited from Decker formed the foundation of the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, where sculpted pineapples still decorate the balustrades today.
Sources
(1) Howard, Miscellanea Genealogica Et Heraldica, Vol. 4, 1892, p. 289.
(2) Slive, Seymour, Jacob Van Ruisdael: A Complete Catalogue of His Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, p. 60.
(3) Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. 7, 1911, "Decker, Sir Matthew", p. 913.
(4) History of Parliament Online, "DECKER, Sir Matthew, 1st Bt. (1679-1749), of Richmond, Surr."
(5) Oldmixon, John, The History of England: During the Reigns of King William and Queen Mary, London, 1735, p. 706.
