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The article presents data on the social composition of the Royal Economic Society (R.E.S.) in Great Britain from 1890 to 1960 by analyzing a 10 per cent sample of home-based members in selected years throughout the period since the society's foundation in 1890. The R.E.S. membership lists include the names of many subscribers who possess no serious claims to be regarded as professional economists by any normal definition of those terms. Nevertheless, throughout its long life the society's ranks have included the great majority of British professional economists as well as many serious amateur students of the subject and the occupational statistics provide some basis for judging the relative importance of the two categories. The R.E.S. data provided in the paper provides only limited and indirect evidence of this newer type of professionalization, though it is compatible with it. The strongest common link among Fellows of the Society was their subscription to "The Economic Journal," a periodical coverage in 1960 than in the 1890s and although subscribers are not necessarily readers, the subscription lists obviously provide important insights into the journal's audience.