ABSTRACT
The second volume of this History of Economic Thought in France is devoted to the development of political economy during the long nineteenth-century France. This brief opening chapter aims to set the stage, depicting the century as a period of great transformations, which provided fertile ground for the expansion of liberal political economy, especially in the footsteps of Jean-Baptiste Say. The February Revolution of 1848 helped, in a sense, to consolidate the liberal group around the principles of freedom and private property, while the Paris Commune of 1871 coincided with the beginning of its decline, under the growing influence of interventionists, nationalists and protectionists. Mathematical economics and economic calculation also underwent major analytical advancements between the 1830s and the end of the century, particularly with Augustin Cournot, Jules Dupuit and Léon Walras.
