Walras’s youth and the first draft of the Walrasian system
Marie-Esprit-Leon Walras was born on 16 December 1834, at Evreux, in Normandy. He was the second of four children. His parents, Louise Aline Sainte-Beuve (1811-1893) and Antoine-Auguste Walras (1801-1866) belonged to the provincial bourgeoisie.
Walras is one of the great names in economics (like, for example, John Stuart Mill and John Maynard Keynes) that are marked by the influence of towering father figures. A radical anticlerical intellectual, Antoine-Auguste was not a very successful economist. A former graduate from the French Ecole Normale, he never managed to achieve a real academic career, mainly for political reasons. Nevertheless, he lavished his attention on his son, and had a decisive influence on Leon’s choices.After studying literature in Caen and Douai, Leon Walras obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in literature in 1851. He then specialized in mathematics, an inevitable path for those who intended to graduate from French elite schools. Despite his Bachelor of Science degree, he failed the Ecole polytechnique entrance examination twice: however, in 1854 he was accepted as an external student at the Ecole imperiale des Mines. He stayed there only for a short time: his marks were too low in the technical and practical tests, and he was excluded from the prestigious school in summer 1856. Walras was more interested in a literary career. He published, at his own expense, his first and only novel, Francis Sauveur (1858). However, a tragic event - the death of his younger brother Louis - convinced him to dedicate himself to continuing his father’s work. This was called the “oath of the Reeds”, the name of the villa in front of which Leon made the solemn promise to his father to walk in his steps.