Contributors to the two volumes

Alain Beraud is Emeritus Professor at the CY Cergy Paris Universite, France, and a member of the research centre THEMA (Centre National de la Recherche Sci- entifique). His recent publications include “Les ingenieurs economistes franςais et la Theorie Generale de Keynes (1945-1952)” (Revue d’histoire de lapensee economique, 2022); “Fred Manville Taylor and the Origins of the Term ‘Say’s Law’”, with Guy Numa (History of Political Economy, 2022); “A Rebuttal of James Ahiakport’s Fallacies and Misrepresentations of Jean-Baptiste Say’s Writings and Thinking”, with Guy Numa (Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Virtual Issue, 2021); “Les economistes francophones et les equilibres non-walrasiens (1970-1985)” (∏conomia.

Vincent Bourdeau is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Franche-Comte (Besanςon, France) and a member of the research cen­tre Logiques de l’Agir (UR 2274). His main research areas concern political philosophy, philosophy of economics, philosophy of law and history of social sciences in relation with socialist and republican ideas. He edited Quand les socialistes inventaient l’avenir 1825-1860 (La Decouverte, 2015, with Th. Bouchet, E. Castleton, L. Frobert and F. Jarrige) and Les encyclopedismes en France a l’ere des revolutions (1789-1850) (Presses Universitaires de Franche-Comte 2019, with J.-L. Chappey and J. Vincent).

Pascal Bridel is Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Laus­anne and founder of the Walras-Pareto Centre.

Gilbert Faccarello is Emeritus Professor at Pantheon-Assas University, Paris, France. He is a co-founder of The European Journal of the History of Eco­nomic Thought published by Routledge and acted as a chairman of the Council of the European Society for the History of Economic Thought. His publica­tions include books and articles in the history of economic thought. Recently, he published “A Calm investigation into Mr Ricardo’s principles of international trade”, “A dance teacher for paralysed people. Charles de Coux and the dream of a Christian political economy” and “ ‘I profess to have made no discovery’. James Mill on comparative advantage” (The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2015, 2017 and 2022), and he edited The Reception of David Ricardo in Continental Europe and Japan (Routledge, 2014, with Masashi Izumo), Handbook on the History of Economic Analysis (Edward Elgar, 2016, three volumes, with Heinz D. Kurz), Political Economy and Religion (2017, a special issue of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought), Marx at 200 (2018, a special issue of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, with Heinz D. Kurz) and Malthus across Nations. The Reception of Thomas Robert Malthus in Europe, America and Japan (Edward Elgar, 2020, with Masashi Izumo and Hiromi Morishita).

Ludovic Frobert is Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and a member of the research centre Triangle (Lyon, France).

Antoin E. Murphy is a retired Professor and Fellow Emeritus of Trinity College Dublin, Ireland and a co-founder of The European Journal of the History of Economic Thought published by Routledge. His publications include Richard Cantillon: Entrepreneur and Economist (Oxford University Press, 1986), John Law: Economic Theorist and Policymaker (Oxford University Press, 1997), Du Tot. Histoire du Systeme de John Law (1716-1720) (ed., INED, 2000), The Gen­esis of Macroeconomics (Oxford University Press, 2008) and The Fall of the Celtic Tiger (with Donal Donovan, Oxford University Press, 2013).

Guy Numa is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA. His recent publications include “The Mon­etary Economics of Jules Dupuit” (The European Journal of the History ofEco- nomic Thought, 2016), “Charles Coquelin and Jules Dupuit on Banking and Credit” (Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 2017), “Jean-Baptiste Say on Free Trade” (History of Political Economy, 2019), “Money as a Store of Value: Jean-Baptiste Say on Hoarding and Idle Balances” (History of Political Economy, 2020) and, with Alain Beraud, “Beyond Say’s Law. The Significance of J.-B.

Arnaud Orain is Professor at the University of Paris 8 (Saint-Denis, France). He was Davis Fellow of the History Department of Princeton University in 2015-16 and Florence Gould Fellow of Princeton Institute for Advanced Study in 2020-21. His recent publications include Les voies de la richesse? Laphysi- ocratie en question (1760-1850) (edited with G. Klotz and Ph. Minard, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2017), La politique du merveilleux. Une autre histoire du Systeme de Law, 1695-1795 (Fayard, “L’epreuve de l’Histoire”, 2018) and Les savoirs perdus de l’economie. Contribution a l’equilibre du vivant (Gal- limard, “Nrf essais”, 2023).

Jean-Pierre Potier is Emeritus Professor at the Universite Lumiere (Lyon, France) and a member of the research centre Triangle (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). He was a co-editor of the interest in studying the history of economic ideas in France. Yet, after World War II, this interest appeared to wane as attention shifted to the study of British and American authors and traditions. How­ever, in recent decades, there has been a renaissance of interest in the contributions of French-speaking authors. This revival was sometimes propelled by the publication of critical editions of major works such as those of Pierre Le Pesant de Boisguilbert, Franςois Quesnay, Jean-Baptiste Say, Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon, Jean-Charles Leonard Simonde de Sismondi, Jules Dupuit and Leon Walras. It was also helped by the emerging availability on the internet of a sizeable number of scanned original works which would have been otherwise difficult to find. As a result, the field of study has been considerably extended, and novel original research has been made possible. Examples of this new research are eighteenth-century studies highlighting “commerce politique”, sensationist political economy, quantification and formalisa­tion.

Based on this flow of recent research, the objective of this book is to present a new assessment of the history of political economy in France. Besides novel presentations of some traditional subjects, the reader will find topics that are not usually studied, and which are yet part and parcel of this history and contribute in an important way to its understanding. The present work focuses on what could be called the “golden age” of French political economy, a period extending from 1695 to 1914. It symbolically starts with Boisguilbert’s foundation of laissez-faire at the end of the seventeenth century and ends with World War I. It is divided into two volumes, reflecting two very distinct phases of the evolution of economic ideas in France, separated by the traumatic events of the French Revolution. The first volume deals with political economy in the Age of Enlightenment, while the second analyses political economy during the long nineteenth century, combin­ing an assessment of both liberals and their opponents. Additionally, a Prelude, in Volume 1, presents the main features of the Age of Enlightenment and some devel­opments which happened prior to this period. A substantial Postlude, in Volume 2, deals with the main theoretical developments which took place after World War I.

Finally, there are a number of relevant issues here to bring to the attention of the reader. Firstly, the book deals with the history of political economy in France, and not strictly speaking French political economy because it focuses on works originally published in the French language: many important authors - such as John Law, Richard Cantillon, Ferdinando Galiani, Jean-Charles Leonard Simonde de Sismondi, Antoine-Elisee Cherbuliez, Gustave de Molinari or Vilfredo Pareto, for example - while not French but Scottish, Irish, Neapolitan, Swiss, Belgian, Italian - published path-breaking writings in the French language and played a major role in French debates.

Such a work could not be but a collective venture and the various chapters have been assigned to the relevant specialist(s). The editors are sincerely grateful to the authors who patiently and very professionally accepted the review process. They also would like to thank them - and the publishers - for their patience during the long gestation of this work.

Gilbert Faccarello and Claire Silvant

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