ABSTRACT
Orleanism was invented in the wake of the 1830 revolution. The main emotion uniting the liberals was fear that the revolution could escalate out of control. Louis-Philippe, the Duc d'Orleans, was a loyal supporter of the Bourbon monarchy, unwilling to acknowledge the idea of an 'Orleanist alternative' which his banker, Jacques Laffitte, and a handful of friends dreamt up in 1827. The Restoration liberals had reluctantly sunk their differences in the late 1820s to defend the constitution and oppose Polignac, but liberalism had no ideological substance. The minimal scale of constitutional revision suggests that the Restoration was only an impossible regime to historians determined to prove that France was destined to be a republic. The public assertion of economic liberalism ran in tandem with protectionist tariff policies established during the Restoration and demanded by major producers. Economic crises, like that in which the July Days occurred, continued to be muddled through with a combination of private and municipal charity.
