Treatise on Political Economy

Author: Jean-Baptiste Say
Pages: 516

With the first edition of his Treatise on Political Economy , published in 1803, Jean-Baptiste Say accomplished a small revolution. Not only did he methodically organize economic science and correct the conceptual errors of Adam Smith and his predecessors, but he also opened up new perspectives. By describing protectionism as a form of spoliation, in which a few enrich themselves at the expense of the mass of consumers, he prepared the way for Frédéric Bastiat's work. By being the first to speak in economic terms of the industry of the statesman, the judge, etc., he bequeathed a boldness of language from which Gustave de Molinari, for example, profited, with his idea of ​​the production of security and the competitive industry of governments. Now all this is already in the first edition of 1803. It is therefore a classic and influential work, which is reissued here.