ABSTRACT OF PAPER
Title: Characters, issues, and schools: was J.B Say the figurehead of the anti-Ricardians?
Author: Schoorl Evert
Abstract Jean-Baptiste Say’s name is widely associated with the debate around the Law of Markets, preeminently with Malthus and Sismondi, and with his value debate with Ricardo. It is less known that he was seen by many as the ‘head of the anti-Ricardians’ in controversies between competing schools of thought. During the emerging academic institutionalization of economics, professionals of the new discipline looked at each other for support in battles between late physiocrats and late cameralists, rigorous objectivists like Ricardo, and more subjectivist economists like Say. His correspondence offers many illustrations of these debates. This paper examines briefly the first two controversies mentioned – regarding Say’s Law and the value debate. With respect to Say’s Law, special attention is given to the role of Sismondi. The accent is upon the second issue, the competition between old and new schools of economic thought. Although Say in his later life professed not to belong to any school, a number of his correspondents saw him as the most prominent anti-Ricardian. His correspondence also reveals that all over Europe economists were keeping a watchful eye on what was taught elsewhere and by whom, with the use of what textbooks. e.schoorl@rug.nl
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