Notre heritage n’est precede d’aucun testament.1
The cultural treasures of the past, believed to be dead, are being made to speak, in the course of which it turns out that they propose things altogether different from the familiar, worn-out trivialities they had been presumed to say.[1] [2] Traditionally, there has been a long and sustained 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 eighteenthcentury studies highlighting “commerce politique”, sensationist political economy, quantification and formalisation. Nineteenth-century studies have provided detailed analyses on the different approaches of the liberal economists and the many attempts to propose alternative views, such as Christian political economy or the multifaceted developments proposed by associationist or socialist authors. All these advances necessarily changed the perspective from which the story was usually told. 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. Secondly, the approaches used in the various chapters may be different, due to the subject discussed. However, aside from the analytical developments, they also concentrate on the institutional, political and/or philosophical aspects of these subjects. Thirdly, while comprehensiveness is of course out of reach in such an enterprise, the developments are nonetheless substantial and offer the readers a wealth of new analyses and perspectives. Fourthly, throughout the book, and unless otherwise indicated, italics in quotations are always those of the original works.
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