ABSTRACT
American institutionalists often refer to Jean-Charles-LConard Simonde de Sismondi as a forerunner of the institutionalist method (Mitchell, 1924, p. 362; Clark, 1932, p. 106). Even recently, Richard Hyse, the English-language translator of the Nozlveazrx principes d'iconomie politiqzle emphasises that the 'New Principles is an institutional work in the sense of institutionalism as a method of economic research' (Sismondi, 1991, p. 24, n. 2).' In this context, this chapter aims to show that Sismondi develops an original conception of the evolution of economic institutions. We will see how, gradually in the course of his work, this author comes to apprehend economic history as a laboratory for experimenting on economic institutions.
