ABSTRACT
A preliminary question that should be addressed before examining the history of the Société d’Economie Politique (hereafter: SEP) is whether any association concerned exclusively with political economy existed in Paris before its creation in 1842. This would have been unlikely before the 1830 revolution, since the Restoration was highly mistrustful of economists (Le Van-Lemesle 1991:360-1). Nor was this state of affairs modified by the institution of the so-called July Monarchy’ in July 1830, although in the starting period of the new regime all seemed to confirm the possibility of a change of attitude. During its first two years the new regime created a chair of political economy at the Collège de France, to which Jean-Baptiste Say was appointed (12th March 1831). The year after, the Académic des Sciences Morales et Politiques was restored and political economy was reinstated at the Institut (edict of 26th October 1832). Nevertheless, Louis-Philippe maintained an attitude of profound mistrust towards economists during the first ten years of his reign. Meetings with political economy on their agenda were treated with great suspicion and were placed under police surveillance: for example, those held in Paris between 1834 and 1837 (Courtois 1882:6).
