ABSTRACT
Claude Henri de Rouvroy, Count of Saint-Simon (1760–1825), developed for time thinking close to Jean-Baptiste Say in political economic matters. When Saint-Simon died in 1825 after having produced a wealth of literature that caused him to be counted among the philosophers and economists of the period, his disciples immediately endeavoured to spread his work. The Saint-Simonians bore a project that was at once industrial, intellectual and moral for society, and political economy was conceived in relation to this project. Economists contemporary to the Saint-Simonians such as Jean-Baptiste Say were in effect interested in individuals engaged in economic activity where each was considered in relation to oneself. In the society that the Saint-Simonians observe, the worker is not only a dominated being but also an exploited one. The society in which the Saint-Simonians live is thus a society in 'two classes, the idle and the workers'.
