ABSTRACT
A controversy persists about the origin of the first theories of management, and doubtless arises from the different conceptions of what should be understood by 'management'. For historians of business, this kind of reflection dates back at least to Greco-Roman antiquity;' for historians of capitalism, it really appears only at the moment of the first English industrial revo~ution;~ finally, for historians of business management, it only emerges belatedly, during the last century, in the advanced c ~ u n t r i e s . ~
These three theses, moreover, do not necessarily exclude each other; the emergence and development of ~ L Z science deJ uffaaires in France during the first half of the nineteenth century can, in fact, be interpreted by combining the latter
4 two. The expression science des uffcsire~ then designated theories related to managing private enterprises, theories that were formulated in a clearly economic perspective. This chapter is devoted to the emergence and transformation of this business science. Its goal will be to bring to light authors and a literature that have usually been neglected by current historiography. Overall, a double dynamic will be analysed here: (1) that of the production of texts in a field that was often neglected by the majority of the great economists of the period; and (2) that of the progressive constitution of a field of study, a new discipline that sought to carve out its own autonomy in relation to the general political economy.
