ABSTRACT
Aware of the gap that separated the reality of nineteenth-century France from the ideal, Walras was at pains to emphasize the transitional nature of the phase society was going through. As a result of exogenous changes of circumstances the old conditions which suited the agricultural stage led to social tensions in an industrializing society which were summarized under the rubric of ‘the social question’. As the transition from one stage to the other, i.e. from the agricultural stage to the industrial and commercial stage, required time for the conditions to be adapted, the threat of social upheaval during the transitional period loomed large in the background.
