Jean-Baptiste Say was one of the most influential and colourful figures of classical economics. This book uses archival and published sources to place Say in context, at the confluence of several major currents in social philosophy. Familiar with the writers of the Scottish enlightenment, especially Adam Smith, he was profoundly influenced by the Revolution, the Terror and Bonaparte's Empire, and by the republican thinkers with whom he associated. His long and varied career included periods as a journalist, an editor, a tribune under Bonaparte, a cotton manufacturer, and, ultimately, as the most important political economist in France. The Say that emerges from this study is far from being the one dimensional popularizer of Smith and proponent of libertarian ideology that he is often depicted as. Rather he is an 18th-century republican trying to knit togther support for free markets and industrial development with a profound respect for the importance of the legislator, the administrator and the educator in the creation and maintenance of civil society. This book contains an English translation of the full text of "Olbie", Say's Utopian novel written in the style of Rousseau for an

In this discipline-defining volume, some of the leading international scholars in the history of economic thought re-examine the concepts of "classical economics" and the "canon", illuminating the roots of the contemporary discipline, and the shape and form of its evolution. The investigation addresses three related issues. Firstly, the contributors attempt to determine which ideas are vital to classical economics, and whether these ideas distinguish classical economics from other approaches to economic questions. Secondly, the essays address the development of "classical economics" over time through sociological and intellectual processes, and attempt to determine why some writers and works are elevated to the "canon", while others are not. Thirdly, some contributions examine the intellectual consequences of this inevitable process of canonization. The book includes examinations of the work of major economists such as Marx, Smith, Ricardo, Bentham, Malthus, Keynes and Mill. Offering new perspectives on the way an intellectual discipine is constructed, this book should be of essential interest to all scholars of the history of economic thought.

In this discipline-defining volume, some of the leading international scholars in the history of economic thought re-examine the concepts of 'classical economics' and the 'canon', illuminating the roots and evolution of the contemporary discipline.

This book uses archival and published sources to place Say in context, at the confluence of several major currents in social philosophy. The Say that emerges from this study is far from being the one dimensional popularizer of Smith and proponent of libertarian ideology that he is often depicted as. Rather he is an eighteenth-century republican trying to knit togther support for free markets and industrial development with a profound respect for the importance of the legislator, the administrator and the educator in the creation and maintenance of civil society