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Jean-Baptiste Say.
Jean-Baptiste Say.

Jean-Baptiste Say (January 5, 1767 – November 15, 1832) was a French economist and businessman. Events 1477 - Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France. Year 1767 ( MDCCLXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Events 655 - Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria. Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Economics is the social science that studies the production distribution, and consumption of goods and services. He had classically liberal views and argued in favour of competition, free trade and lifting restraints on business. Competition is a rivalry between individuals groups nations or animals for territory or resources Free trade is a system in which the trade of goods and services between or within countries flows unhindered by government-imposed restrictions He originated Say's law, which is often quoted incorrectly as "supply creates its own demand". In Economics, Say’s Law or Say’s Law of Markets is a principle attributed to French businessman and economist Jean-Baptiste Say (1767-1832 stating

Contents

Biography

J. B. Say was born in Lyon. ||-||} Lyon, also known as Lyons in English is a city in east-central France. His father, Jean-Etienne Etienne Say, was of Protestant family which had moved from Nîmes to Geneva for some time in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Nîmes ( Provençal Occitan: Nimes in both classical and Mistralian norms is a city in southern France. The Edict of Nantes was issued on April 13, 1598 by Henry IV of France to grant the Calvinist Protestants of Say was intended to follow a commercial career, and was sent, with his brother Horace, to England: here he lived first in Croydon, in the house of a merchant, to whom he acted as clerk, and afterwards in London, where he was in the service of another employer. Croydon is a large town and major commercial centre in South London, and the principal settlement of the London Borough of Croydon. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. When, on the death of the latter, he returned to France, he was employed in the office of a life assurance company directed by Étienne Clavière. Étienne Clavière ( January 27, 1735 - December 8, 1793) was a Swiss -born French Financier and politician of

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 conformity with the Revolutionary fashion, the pre-name of Atticus, and became secretary to Clavière, then finance minister.

In 1793 Say married Mlle Deloche, daughter of a former lawyer. From 1794 to 1800 Say edited a periodical entitled La Decade philosophique, litteraire, et politique, in which he expounded the doctrines of Adam Smith. Adam Smith ( baptised 16 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of Political economy. 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 hundred members of the tribunate, resigning the direction of the Decade. Year 1799 ( MDCCXCIX) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a

In 1800 he published in Olbie, ou essai sur les moyens de reformer les moeurs d'une nation. Year -of the Julian calendar. The Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar until Friday, but 12 days ahead since Saturday. In 1803 appeared Say's principal work, the Traité d'économie politique ou simple exposition de la manière dont se forment, se distribuent et se composent les richesses. In 1804, having shown his unwillingness to sacrifice his convictions for the purpose of furthering the designs of Napoleon, he was removed from the office of tribune. Napoleon Bonaparte (15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821 was a French military and political leader who had a significant impact on the History of Europe. He then turned to industrial pursuits, and, having made himself acquainted with the processes of the cotton manufacture, founded at Auchy, in the Pas de Calais, a spinning-mill which employed four or five hundred persons, principally women and children. Cotton is a soft staple Fibre that grows around the seeds of the cotton plant ( Gossypium sp He devoted his leisure to the improvement of his economic treatise, which had for some time been out of print, but which the censorship did not permit him to republish.

In 1814 he "availed himself" (to use his own words) of the sort of 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. Alexander I of Russia ( Russian: Александр I Павлович / Aleksandr I Pavlovich (23 December 1777 – November 19 1825 served as Emperor of In the same year the French government sent him to study the economic condition of the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The results of his observations appeared in A tract de l'Angleterre et des Anglais.

A third edition of the Traite appeared in 1817. A chair of industrial economy was founded for him in 1819 at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. Year 1819 ( MDCCCXIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar in the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year In 1831 he was made professor of political economy at the College de France. Year 1831 ( MDCCCXXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment ( Grand établissement) located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement Say in 1828–1830 published his Cours complet d'economie politique pratique.

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 constantly declined.

When the revolution of that year broke out, he was named a member of the council-general of the department of the Seine, but found it necessary to resign.

He died in Paris on November 15, 1832. Events 655 - Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia is defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria. Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian

Say's Law

He is well known for Say's Law (or Say's Law of Markets), often summarised as

Say's law says “the supply (sale) of X creates the demand (purchase) of Y”. This law can be shown by business-cycle statistics. When downturns start, production is always first to decline, ahead of demand. When the economy recovers, production recovers ahead of demand

He was also among the first to argue that money was neutral in its effect on the economy. Money is not desired for its own sake, but for what it can purchase. An increase in the amount of money in circulation would increase the price of other goods in terms of money (causing inflation), but would not change the relative prices of goods or the quantity produced. In economics inflation or price inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services over a period of time This idea was later developed by economists into the Quantity theory of money. In Economics, the quantity theory of money is a theory emphasizing the Positive relationship of overall prices or the nominal value of expenditures to the

Say's ideas helped to inspire neoclassical economics which arose later in the 19th century. Neoclassical economics is a term variously used for approaches to Economics focusing on the determination of prices outputs and income distributions in markets The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar

As an interesting conjecture, Say's Law may have culled from Ecclesiastes 5:11 — "As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?" (NIV)

Major Works of Jean-Baptiste Say

Quotes

On taxes:

"To encourage whale-hunting, the English government prohibits vegetable oils which we burn in France in draught-lamps. What results from this? That one of these lamps, which costs a Frenchmen 60 francs per year, costs an Englishman 150 francs. The intention, some say, is to support the navy and to multiply the number of sailors, that each lamp nozzle costs Englishmen 90 more franks than in France. In this case, it is to multiply the number of sailors by the means of a trade that generates losses: it would be better to multiply them by a lucrative trade. "

"A hard working laborer, I was told, fancied working by candlelight. He had calculated that, during his vigil, he burned a 4-penny candle, earning 8 pennies by his work. A tax on tallows and another on the manufacture of the candles increased by 5 pennies the cost of his luminary, which became thus more expensive than the value of the product that it could shed light upon. From then on, as soon as night fell, the workman remained idle; he lost the 4 pennies which his work could obtain him, and without the tax service perceiving anything out of this production. Such a loss must be multiplied by the number of the workmen in a city and by the number of the days of the year. "

See also

Books on Say

Samuel Hollander - Jean-Baptiste Say and the Classical Canon in Economics: the British Connection in French Classicism (London and New York: Routledge), 2005, xiii + 322, ISBN 0-415-32338-X

Thomas Sowell - Say's Law: An Historical Analysis (Princeton University Press), 1973, 254, ISBN 0-691-04166-0

External links

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. The Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition (1910–1911 is a 29-volume reference work that marked the beginning of the Encyclopædia Britannica The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone

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