Early Life and Education
Meade was brought up in the city of Bath,Somerset in south-west England. He attended the Lambrook school in Berkshire from 1917 to 1921, where his education revolved around the Greek and Latin languages. In his time in Oriel College Oxford, Meade switched at the end of his second year from Greats to Philosophy, Politics and Economics which was a very new concept at that time having started only in 1921. Meade's interest in economics grew due to various reasons.
He considered the heavy unemployment in the United Kingdom in the inter-war period as a menace and a social evil. His association with major C. H. Douglas, to whom he was introduced to by his aunt, helped him come up with a cure for this evil.
In 1930 Meade was elected to a fellowship at Hertford college, Oxford.There he received the option of continuing his study of economics as a post graduate student. In 1930-31 Meade joined Trinity College, Cambridge after being invited to do so by Dennis Robertson whom he met through his great aunt.
While in Cambridge Meade became close friends with Richard Kahn, Piero Sraffa, Joan Robinson and Austin Robinson forming a the Cambridge Circus for economic discussion. Together they started discussing Keynes' work namely the A Treatise on Money. Every weekend Keynes would appear and be presented with the circle's discussion over the week by Kahn. They also discussed theories with Keynes when they met on Monday evenings at the political economy club in Keynes room in King's College.
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