Jean-Baptiste Say - Wikipedia Jean-Baptiste Say From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search French economist and businessman Jean-Baptiste Say Born (1767-01-05)5 January 1767 Lyon, Kingdom of France Died 15 November 1832(1832-11-15) (aged 65) Paris, France Nationality French Field Political economy School or tradition French Liberal School Influences Richard Cantillon, Adam Smith, Pietro Verri Contributions Say's law, entrepreneurship Jean-Baptiste Say (French: [ʒɑ̃batist sɛ]; 5 January 1767 – 15 November 1832) was a liberal French economist and businessman who argued in favor of competition, free trade and lifting restraints on business. He is best known for Say's law—also known as the law of markets—which he popularized. Scholars disagree on the surprisingly subtle question of whether it was Say who first stated what is now called Say's law.[1][2] Moreover, he was one of the first economists to study entrepreneurship and conceptualized entrepreneurs as organizers and leaders of the economy.[3] Contents 1 Early life 2 Writings, teaching and entrepreneurship 3 Say's law 4 Theory of entrepreneurship 5 Honours 6 Later years and death 7 Personal life 8 References 9 Further reading 10 External links Early life[edit] Map of Croydon, drawn by the 18-year-old Say in 1785 Say was born in Lyon. His father Jean-Etienne Say was born to a Protestant family which had moved from Nîmes to Geneva for some time in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Say was intended to follow a commercial career and in 1785 was sent with his brother Horace to complete his education in England. He lodged for a time in Croydon and afterwards (following a return visit to France) in Fulham. During the latter period, he was employed successively by two London-based firms of sugar merchants, James Baillie & Co and Samuel and William Hibbert.[4][5] At the end of 1786, he accompanied Samuel Hibbert on a voyage to France which ended in December with Hibbert's death in Nantes. Say returned to Paris, where he found employment in the office of a life assurance company directed by Étienne Clavière. His brother Louis Auguste (1774–1840) also became an economist. Writings, teaching and entrepreneurship[edit] Title page of Say's Lettres à M. Malthus, sur différens sujets d'économie politique, published in 1820 Say's first literary attempt was a pamphlet on the liberty of the press, published in 1789. He later worked under Mirabeau on the Courrier de Provence. In 1792, he took part as a volunteer in the campaign of Champagne. In 1793, he assumed in keeping with French Revolutionary fashion the pseudonym Atticus and became secretary to Étienne Clavière, the then finance minister. From 1794 to 1800, he edited a periodical, entitled La Decade philosophique, litteraire, et politique, in which he expounded the doctrines of Adam Smith. He had by this time established his reputation as a publicist and when the consular government was established in 1799 he was selected as one of the 100 members of the Tribunat, resigning the editorship of the Decade. In 1800, Say published Olbie, ou essai sur les moyens de réformer les mœurs d'une nation. In 1803, he published his principal work, the Traité d'économie politique ou simple exposition de la manière dont se forment, se distribuent et se composent les richesses. Having proved unwilling to compromise his convictions in the interests of Napoleon, Say was removed from the office of tribune in 1804. He turned to industrial activities and after having familiarised himself with the processes of cotton manufacture he established a spinning-mill at Auchy-lès-Hesdin in the Pas de Calais which employed some 400–500 people, mainly women and children. He devoted his leisure time to revising his economic treatise which had been out of print for some time, but the system of state censorship in place prevented him from republishing it. In 1814, Say availed himself (to use his own words) of the relative liberty arising from the entrance of the allied powers into France to bring out a second edition of the work dedicated to the emperor Alexander I of Russia, who had professed himself his pupil. In the same year, the French government sent him to study the economic condition of the United Kingdom. The results of his observations appeared in a tract, De l'Angleterre et des Anglais. A third edition of the Traité appeared in 1817. A chair of industrial economy was established for him in 1819 at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. In 1825, he became a member of the improvement council of the École spéciale de commerce et d'industrie, one of the first business schools in the world, and now (as École supérieure de commerce de Paris - ESCP) regarded as the world's oldest business school.[6] However, as the French scholar Adrien Jean-Guy Passant reveals, Jean-Baptiste Say is not the founder of this business school.[7] In 1831, he was made professor of political economy at the Collège de France. In 1828–1830, he published his Cours complet d'économie politique pratique. Say's law[edit] Part of the Politics series on Neoliberalism Origins Industrial Revolution Mercantilism Classical liberalism Keynesian economics Ideas Austerity Balanced budget Company Corporation Democracy Denationalization Deregulation Economic freedom Economic integration Economic interdependence Economic liberalization Fiscal conservatism Foreign direct investment Free markets Free trade (area) Globalization Harmonisation of law Intellectual property Intergovernmentalism Liberalization Marketization Market economy Negative income tax Private property Privatization Public–private partnership School vouchers Single market Supranationalism Tax cuts Tax reform Theories Comparative advantage Economic growth Gross domestic product International economics International finance International trade Laffer curve Economics Austrian School Chicago School Neoclassical Trickle-down Supply-side Movements Fiscal conservatism Globalization Reaganomics Rogernomics Thatcherism Governance Association of Southeast Asian Nations Bank for International Settlements European Central Bank European Union Federal Reserve Greater Arab Free Trade Area International Monetary Fund MERCOSUR North American Free Trade Agreement Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership World Bank World Trade Organization People Milton Friedman Friedrich Hayek Ludwig von Mises James M. Buchanan Augusto Pinochet Margaret Thatcher Ronald Reagan Alan Greenspan Related topics Anti-capitalism Anti-copyright Anti-globalization Alter-globalization Authoritarian capitalism Criticism of capitalism Criticism of intellectual property Inverted totalitarianism Perspectives on capitalism Protectionism  Capitalism portal  Economics portal  Politics portal v t e Further information: Say's law Say is well known for Say's law, or the law of markets, often controversially summarised as: "Aggregate supply creates its own aggregate demand" "Supply creates its own demand" Say's law is instead uncontroversially summarized as: "Supply constitutes its own demand" "Inherent in supply is the wherewithal for its own consumption" (direct translation from French Traité d'économie politique) The exact phrase "supply creates its own demand" was coined by John Maynard Keynes, who criticized it as in the former two, equating all four of these statements to mean the same thing. Some economists, including some advocates of Say's law who dispute this characterization as a misrepresentation,[8] have disputed his interpretation, claiming that Say's law can actually be summarized more accurately as "production precedes consumption" and that Say was claiming that in order to consume one must produce something of value so that one can trade this (either in the form of money or barter) in order to consume later.[9] Similar sentiments through different wordings appear in the work of John Stuart Mill (1848) and his father James Mill (1808). The Scottish classical economist James Mill restates Say's law in 1808, writing that "production of commodities creates, and is the one and universal cause which creates a market for the commodities produced".[10] In Say's language, "products are paid for with products" (1803, p. 153) or "a glut can take place only when there are too many means of production applied to one kind of product and not enough to another" (1803, pp. 178–179). Explaining his point at length, he wrote the following:[11] It is worthwhile to remark that a product is no sooner created than it, from that instant, affords a market for other products to the full extent of its own value. When the producer has put the finishing hand to his product, he is most anxious to sell it immediately, lest its value should diminish in his hands. Nor is he less anxious to dispose of the money he may get for it; for the value of money is also perishable. But the only way of getting rid of money is in the purchase of some product or other. Thus the mere circumstance of creation of one product immediately opens a vent for other products.[12] Say also wrote that it is not the abundance of money, but the abundance of other products in general that facilitates sales:[13] Money performs but a momentary function in this double exchange; and when the transaction is finally closed, it will always be found, that one kind of commodity has been exchanged for another. Say's law may also have been culled from Ecclesiastes 5:11 – "When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?" (KJV). Say's law has been considered by John Kenneth Galbraith as "the most distinguished example of the stability of economic ideas, including when they are wrong".[14] Say's law emerged during the early period of the Industrial Revolution, at a time when the economic phenomena of increased output merged with England's cyclical inability to maintain both sales and unemployment. This led many to believe that there was a limit to the growth of production, and there may come a point when there is no means of purchasing all output generated. Say's Law of Markets deals with the fact that production of commodities causes income to be paid to suppliers of the components of capital, labor, and land used in producing these goods and services. The sale price of these commodities is the sum of the payments of wages, rents, and profit.[15] Income generated during production of a commodity equals the value of that commodity. Therefore, an increase in the supply of output will result in an increase in the income necessary to generate demand for those products. In the words of Jean-Baptiste Say, "unless we produce, we cannot consume; unless we first supply, we cannot demand".[16] Theory of entrepreneurship[edit] In the Treatise, his main economic work, Say stated that any production process required effort, knowledge and the "application" of the entrepreneur. According to him, entrepreneurs are intermediaries in the production process who combine productive agents such as land, capital and labor in order to meet the demand of consumers. As a result, they play a central role in the economy and fulfil a coordinating role.[3] Besides studying large-scale entrepreneurs, Say looked at people working for themselves: When a workman carries on an enterprise on his own account, as the knife grinder in the streets, he is both workman and entrepreneur.[17] Say also thought about which qualities are essential for successful entrepreneurs and highlighted the quality of judgement. To his mind, entrepreneurs have to continuously assess market needs and the means which could meet them, which requires an "unerring market sense".[3] As he emphasized the coordinating function of entrepreneurs, Say viewed entrepreneurial income primarily as high wages that are paid in compensation for the skills and expert knowledge of entrepreneurs. He did so by making a distinction between the enterprise function and the supply-of-capital-function which allowed him to look at the earnings of the entrepreneur on the one hand and the remuneration of capital on the other hand. This clearly differentiates his theory from that of Joseph Schumpeter, who described entrepreneurial rent as short-term profits that compensate for high risk (Schumpeterian rent).[3] Say also touched upon risk and uncertainty as well as innovation when discussing entrepreneurship, although he never deeply investigated their relationships. However, Say stated: [In any enterprise activity] there is an abundance of obstacles to be surmounted, of anxieties to be repressed, of misfortunes to be repaired, and of expedients to be devised [...] [and] there is always a degree of risk attending such undertakings.[18] Sometimes a manufacturer discovers a process, calculated either to introduce a new product, to increase the beauty of an old one, or to produce with greater economy.[19] Honours[edit] In 1826, Say was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Later years and death[edit] Say's tomb in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris In his later years, Say became subject to attacks of nervous apoplexy. He lost his wife in January 1830 and from that time his health declined. When the revolution of that year broke out, Say was named a member of the council-general of the department of the Seine, but he found it necessary to resign. Say died in Paris on 15 November 1832 and was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery. Personal life[edit] In 1793, Say married Mlle Deloche, daughter of a former lawyer. References[edit] ^ Thweatt, William O. "Early Formulators of Say's Law". In Wood, John Cunningham (editor); Kates, Steven (editor) (2000). Jean-Baptiste Say: Critical Assessments. V. London: Routledge. pp. 78–93.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link) ^ Braudel, Fernand (1979). The Wheels of Commerce: Civilisation and Capitalism 15th–18th Century. p. 181. ^ a b c d Koolman, G. (1971). "Say's Conception of the Role of the Entrepreneur". Economica. 38 (151): 269–286. doi:10.2307/2552843. JSTOR 2552843. ^ Lancaster, Brian (March 2012), "Jean-Baptiste Say's 1785 Croydon street plan", Croydon Natural History & Scientific Society Bulletin, 144: 2–5 ^ Lancaster, Brian (2015). "Jean-Baptiste Say's First Visit to England (1785/6)". History of European Ideas. 41 (7): 922–930. doi:10.1080/01916599.2014.989676. S2CID 144520487. ^ "Adrien Jean-Guy Passant: Between filial piety and managerial opportunism: The strategic use of the history of a family business after the buyout by non-family purchasers, Entreprises et Histoire, Volume 91, Issue 2, pp.62-81, 2018". doi:10.3917/eh.091.0062. Cite journal requires |journal= (help) ^ Adrien Jean-Guy Passant: À l’origine des écoles de commerce : ESCP Business School, la passion d’entreprendre, L'Harmattan, 2020, ISBN 978-2-343-18659-7. ^ (Clower 2004, p. 92) harv error: no target: CITEREFClower2004 (help) ^ Bylund, Per. "Say's Law (the Law of Markets)". ^ Mill, James (1808). Commerce Defended. "Chapter VI: Consumption". p. 81. ^ "Information on Jean-Baptiste Say".Archived 26 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine ^ Say, Jean-Baptiste (1803). A Treatise on Political Economy. pp. 138–139. ^ Say, Jean-Baptiste (1803). A Treatise on Political Economy. Translated from the fourth edition of the French in 2001. Batoche Books Kitchener. p. 57. ^ Galbraith, John Kenneth (1975), Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, ISBN 0-395-19843-7. ^ Sowell, Thomas (1972). Say's Law: An Historical Analysis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400871223. ^ Eberling, Richard (19 June 2017). "Economic Ideas: Jean-Baptiste Say and the 'Law of Markets'". The Future of Freedom Foundation. Retrieved 21 April 2020. ^ Say, Jean-Baptiste (1821). "Catechism of Political Economy". Mises Institute. Retrieved 13 August 2019. ^ Say, Jean-Baptiste (1880). A Treatise on Political Economy. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. p. 331. ^ Say, Jean-Baptiste (1880). A Treatise on Political economy. Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger. p. 329. Further reading[edit] Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Say, Jean Baptiste" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. Hart, David (2008). "Say, Jean-Baptiste (1767–1832)". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE; Cato Institute. pp. 449–450. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n274. ISBN 978-1412965804. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024. Hollander, Samuel (2005), Jean-Baptiste Say and the Classical Canon in Economics: the British Connection in French Classicism, London and New York: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-32338-X. Garello, Jacques Garello (29 January 2011). "Portrait: J.B. Say (1767–1832)". La nouvelle lettre. 1064: 8. Schoorl, Evert (2012). Jean-Baptiste Say: Revolutionary, Entrepreneur, Economist. London: London. ISBN 9781135104108. Sowell, Thomas (1973), Say's Law: An Historical Analysis, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-04166-0. Teilhac, Ernest (1927). L'oeuvre économique de Jean-Baptiste Say. Paris. Whatmore, Richard (2001), Republicanism and the French Revolution: An Intellectual History of Jean-Baptiste Say's Political Economy, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-924115-5. External links[edit] Wikiquote has quotations related to: Jean-Baptiste Say Works by or about Jean-Baptiste Say at Internet Archive Say's Law and Economic Growth Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Economic Insights article (Volume 11, Number 1) A Treatise on Political Economy at McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought Letters to Malthus on Several Subjects of Political Economy (1821) at McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought Guide to the Jean Baptiste Say Collection 1794-1821 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center v t e Austrian School economists Influences Frédéric Bastiat French Liberal School Jean-Baptiste Say Gustave de Molinari School of Salamanca Founders Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk Friedrich Hayek Carl Menger Ludwig von Mises Friedrich von Wieser Other contributors Walter Block Peter Boettke Thomas DiLorenzo Frank Fetter Roger Garrison Gottfried Haberler Henry Hazlitt Robert Higgs Hans-Hermann Hoppe Steven Horwitz Jesús Huerta de Soto Israel Kirzner Ludwig Lachmann Roderick T. Long Fritz Machlup Robert Murphy David Prychitko Larry Reed Murray Rothbard Joseph Salerno Mark Skousen Gerhard Tintner See also List of Austrian School economists v t e Classical economists Francis Hutcheson Bernard Mandeville David Hume Adam Smith Jean-Baptiste Say Thomas Malthus James Mill Francis Place David Ricardo Henry Thornton John Ramsay McCulloch James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale Jeremy Bentham Jean Charles Léonard de Sismondi Johann Heinrich von Thünen John Stuart Mill Nassau William Senior Edward Gibbon Wakefield Frédéric Bastiat Thomas Tooke Robert Torrens v t e Neoliberalism Origins Industrial Revolution Mercantilism Classical liberalism Keynesian economics Ideas Austerity Balanced budget Company Corporation Democracy Denationalization Deregulation Economic freedom Economic integration Economic interdependence Economic liberalization Foreign direct investment Free markets Free trade (area) Harmonisation of law Intellectual property Intergovernmentalism Liberalization Marketization Negative income tax Private property Privatization Public-private partnership School vouchers Single market Supranationalism Tax cuts Tax reform Theories Comparative advantage Economic growth Economic rationalism Gross domestic product International economics International finance International trade Laffer curve Economics Austrian School Chicago School Neoclassical Trickle-down Supply-side Movements Fiscal conservatism Globalization Right-libertarianism Reaganomics Rogernomics Thatcherism Governance Association of Southeast Asian Nations Bank for International Settlements European Central Bank European Union Federal Reserve Greater Arab Free Trade Area International Monetary Fund MERCOSUR North American Free Trade Agreement Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership World Bank World Trade Organization People Milton Friedman Friedrich Hayek Ludwig von Mises James M. Buchanan Augusto Pinochet Margaret Thatcher Ronald Reagan Alan Greenspan Related topics Anti-copyright Anti-globalization Alter-globalization Anti-capitalism Authoritarian capitalism Criticism of capitalism Criticism of intellectual property Inverted totalitarianism Authority control BIBSYS: 90523468 BNE: XX1114014 BNF: cb119238753 (data) CANTIC: a10322413 GND: 118820281 ISNI: 0000 0001 2136 3650 LCCN: n50016910 LNB: 000105045 NDL: 00525869 NKC: vse2005299804 NLA: 35766292 NLG: 252866 NLI: 000117040 NTA: 068414951 PLWABN: 9810544568105606 SELIBR: 284139 SNAC: w6513xsb SUDOC: 02712505X Trove: 1077712 VcBA: 495/102938 VIAF: 64011652 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n50016910 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jean-Baptiste_Say&oldid=996311543" Categories: 1767 births 1832 deaths 19th-century economists 19th-century French writers 19th-century French male writers Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Businesspeople from Lyon Classical economists Collège de France faculty French classical liberals French economists French politicians French Protestants French male non-fiction writers Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Conservatoire national des arts et métiers alumni Hidden categories: CS1 maint: extra text: authors list CS1 errors: missing periodical Harv and Sfn no-target errors Webarchive template wayback links Articles with short description Short description matches Wikidata Use dmy dates from August 2019 Articles with hCards Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference Articles with Internet Archive links Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNE identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with LNB identifiers Wikipedia articles with NDL identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLG identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLI identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers Wikipedia articles with Trove identifiers Wikipedia articles with VcBA identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Languages العربية Azərbaycanca Български Català Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 Հայերեն Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ಕನ್ನಡ Latina Lietuvių Magyar مصرى Nederlands 日本語 Norsk bokmål Polski Português Română Русский Shqip Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Suomi Svenska Türkçe Українська 中文 Edit links This page was last edited on 25 December 2020, at 20:30 (UTC). 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