Charles Read is a British economic historian and senior tutor based at the University of Oxford.^[1]

Read was born in London and is of English, Welsh, Armenian and Ethiopian ancestry.^[2][3] He completed his BA, MPhil and PhD degrees focused on economic history at Christ's College, Cambridge.

Read received four academic prizes for his doctoral research. His initial project, a thesis titled ‘British Economic Policy and Ireland, c. 1841-53’ focused on the Irish Famine, earned him the Thirsk-Feinstein PhD Dissertation Prize, the T. S. Ashton Prize for the best Economic History Review article, and the New Researcher Prize from the Economic History Society.^[4] In August 2018, his thesis received the International Economic History Association prize.^[5]

Before coming to Oxford, Read was previously a fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, teaching economics and history and serving as director of the Bridging Course, an introduction to university life aimed at widening participation. He also served as junior proctor of the university for the 2023/24 academic year.^[6] He is currently a senior tutor and tutorial fellow at Regent's Park College, Oxford. He is also an elected Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.^[7] Read has written and edited for The Economist.^[8]

Read has published two books. The Great Famine in Ireland and Britain's Financial Crisis (2022) challenges the idea that the severity of the Irish famine was the result of British colonialism and laissez-faire ideas. It argues much of the death toll was the result of austerity the British government was forced to impose after the February 1847 budget that announced borrowing to expand spending on relief triggered the financial panic of 1847.^[9]

Calming the Storms: the Carry Trade, the Banking School and British Financial Crises since 1825 (2023) discusses British financial crises over the past two hundred years, focusing on carry trade and monetary policy.^[10] In the book, Read argues severe banking crises in Britain disappeared after 1866 as the Bank of England used monetary policy to prevent carry trade from causing instability. He further argues the Bank of England dropping these policies with the advent of competition and credit control in 1971 is the reason for the secondary banking crisis in 1973–75, the 2007–2008 financial crisis and mini-budget crisis of 2022. The more recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank can be attributed to underlying monetary policy issues described in the book.^[11] An article by a business and human interest journalist in a local Cambridge paper stated Read aims to stake a claim to be 'Cambridge's avatar economist for the 21st century'.^[12]

Read appeared in national media in February 2023 in relation to the September 2022 United Kingdom mini-budget, after he stated in a Twitter thread that a lecture he had given to a civil service body, as well as a letter he had written to Kwasi Kwarteng on a historical February 1847 budget, should have been seen as a warning for the Truss government to avoid its subsequent collapse.^[13] The Twitter thread was mentioned in an article about the Truss government collapse in The Guardian and referenced in other UK media.^[14][15]

The Twitter post by Read was shared 1400 times. It stated that a lecture he had given to civil servants and a letter he had addressed and sent to Kwasi Kwarteng on 8 September 2022 about the problems the UK faced in 1847, comparing the historical situation with the present, contradicts Liz Truss's claim that she had not been formally warned about the effects of the budget.^[13] The letter was unsolicited but was published independently on 22 September 2022 prior to the budget being announced, and Read was giving a lecture at the Treasury at the time.^[16][17]

Read has claimed that he foresaw the collapse because his book on the Irish Famine describes a similar situation to that recreated by the current government at the time.^[3][18]