French Liberal Economists and the ‘Labour Question' Before and During the Revolution of 1848

In France, during the 1840s, the ‘labour question’, as a main component of the ‘social question’, was discussed by a broad spectrum of people (economists, social reformers, paternalist entrepreneurs, social Catholics, socialists, and so forth), and so we find a wide range of suggestions for solving the problem. The 1840s is the period of the Monarchie de Juillet, and of the February Revolution of 1848, which ended with the (very short-lived) Second Republic. The economic depression began in 1847 and the French economy was in a depression until 1851. Textile industries, metallurgy and railroads were seriously affected, and unemployment strongly increased. Workers’ misery was therefore one of the causes of the February Revolution of 1848.