The aim of this article is to demonstrate that the Classical economists? analysis can serve as a theoretical framework to explain the economic role of luxury. In the 18th century this school of thought was based on the political implications of trade and luxury, conceived as a kind of social...

Condemnation or glorification of luxury is a classic and recurrent question in the history of political ideas. Today, it continues to generate a set of conflicting emotions. In order to understand this debate, we chose to immerse ourselves in the history of economic thought, and, more...

In his writings devoted to monetary questions, Say studies in details monetary, financial and bank innovations which he designates by the expression ?representative signs of money?. Say?s analysis on money and its representation signs is very important since it takes place in a context of major...

Since Schumpeter, there has been a tradition in the history of the economic thought that has placed Say?s entrepreneur in a filiation Cantillon-Turgot. The aim of this article is to show that this filiation does not exist, even if certain themes such as risk, knowledge or organization of...

This article proposes a critical analysis of Jean-Baptiste Say?s thought on the economy in general and more specifically, on slavery. The first part deals with his general ideas on the economy, and studies how he defines value, capital and equilibrium of supply and demand on the markets (Say?s...

In the Traité d?Economie Politique and in the Cours Complet d?Economie Politique, Jean-Baptiste Say develops a criticism of corporations and other industrial regulations. According to him, these regulations are barriers to the entrepreneurial freedom and to the progress of arts. They are almost...

It should be remembered, first of all, that under his training as a young merchant, Jean-Baptiste Say spent two years with his younger brother Horace, near London in Croydon. In 1786, he moved to Britain to learn the practice of English commercial business. This happened in the midst of the...

In the history of economic thought, Jean-Baptiste Say distinguishes himself in being a theoretician and practitioner of the enterprise. Moreover, he also taught the entrepreneurial spirit in the last years of his life. We may therefore find in his writings a theory of production and exchanges...

In this study, we examine how Léon Walras considered the economic evolution towards the most advanced stage of the history of mankind, the so-called ?industrial and commercial regime?. This enables us to present his ideas concerning the ?modern industry? and also to examine the way in which he...

This brief biography of J.-B Say puts in its context the thought of an author who was twenty-three years old in 1789. His social background is that of the Protestant Geneva. In the first part of his life, he founded a newspaper La Décade. His political action took the form of comments, reviews...