Say Jean-Baptiste - Jean-Baptiste Say and Political Economy

For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com/series/SE0341

180 A Historical Political Economy of Capitalism

After metaphysics

Andrea Micocci

181 Comparisons in Economic Thought

Economic interdependency reconsidered

Stavros A. Drakopoulos

182 Four Central Theories of the Market Economy

Conceptions, evolution and applications

Farhad Rassekh

183 Ricardo and the History of Japanese Economic Thought

A selection of Ricardo studies in Japan during the interwar period

Edited by Susumu Takenaga

184 The Theory of the Firm

An overview of the economic mainstream

Paul Walker

185 On Abstract and Historical Hypotheses and On Value-Judgments in Economic Sciences

Critical edition, with an introduction and afterword by Paolo Silvestri

Luigi Einaudi, edited by Paolo Silvestri

186 The Origins of Neoliberalism

Insights from economics and philosophy

Giandomenica Becchio and Giovanni Leghissa

187 The Political Economy of Latin American Independence

Edited by Alexandre Mendes Cunha and Carlos Eduardo Suprinyak

188 Jean-Baptiste Say and Political Economy

Text by Jean-Baptiste Say

Translated and edited by Gilles Jacoud

189 Economists and War

A heterodox perspective

Edited by Fabrizio Bientinesi and Rosario Patalano

First, I would like to thank Sheilagh Bonnet, whose linguistic skills I called upon throughout this book. I was able to count upon her receptiveness as the work progressed. I appreciated the willingness with which she met my requests every time I called upon her and the conscientiousness that she showed in responding to them each time. The quality of the result can be largely attributed to her.

My thanks also go to my fellow researchers in the Groupe dAnalyse et de Thorie Economique Lyon Saint-Etienne (GATE LSE) , especially those who work on the history of economic thought, in particular Nicolas Barbaroux, Antoinette Baujard, Michel Bellet and Philippe Solal. Working in an environment where research on the history of economic thought is recognized and supported is a powerful incentive to advance. The French National Research Agency (Saint-Simonism 1821 Program) also supported this work.

This work also benefited from the impetus stimulated by Andr Tiran of the University Lumire Lyon 2, for the edition of the uvres compltes ( Complete Works ) of Jean-Baptiste Say of which he is the coordinator. I am obliged to him as I am to the other members of the team: Emmanuel Blanc, Pierre-Henri Goutte, Claude Mouchot, Jean-Pierre Potier, Michle Saquin, Jean-Michel Servet and Philippe Steiner.

More generally, I include in my thanks all of those whom, on various occasions such as the meetings organized by the Association Charles Gide pour ltude de la pense conomique (Charles Gide Association for the Study of Economic Thought) or the European Society for the History of Economic Thought, showed an interest in my work, shared their comments about it and encouraged it.

Gentlemen,

I would like to request your permission in repeating some general ideas that you are no strangers to, but that are well worth recalling in their order.

A political society, a nation is a union of families linked by common interests, by geographic convergences, by the same laws.

In the word laws , one must understand all of the obligations, even those that are only imposed by usage, to which one submits no matter what ones capacity is.