The present paper begins with a presentation of Foucault's lectures on economic issues. Departing from his previous views on government, Foucault offered a new approach to eighteenth-century liberalism and neo-liberalism, interpreting these political theories in terms of what he called...

During the nineteenth century, French political economy eluded the historical method. In the light of such context, the way Emile Durkheim and Francois Simiand interpreted the contribution of the German historical school is worth considering. Following Durkheim's sociological approach, Simiand...

For many centuries religion dominated the thought and behaviour of peoples. From the end of the seventeenth century, however, it was progressively replaced by political economy, which in turn developed its full influence during the nineteenth century, imposing a new 'ethos' and a new 'conduct of...

<title>Abstract</title> The developments of political economy in France between 1750 and 1776 did not allocate a central place to the discussion of the nature and functions of money. The object of this paper is to account for this fact and what it denotes: the disappearance of money as a central object in the...

[eng] J.B. Say's conception of the state dépens on the transformation of individual interests in the superior form of enlightenned interests. In such a perspective, the state has a real importance as it can further the development of enlightenment and build a system of good laws. So, there is a...

[fre] Les premières réflexions de J.B. Say au sujet des colonies sont associées au problème de l'esclavage. En effet, la question du caractère rentable ou non de l'esclavage conduit J.B. Say à poser celle du caractère rentable ou non des «îles à sucre» (1). Le système colonial...