Content uploaded by Gilbert Faccarello
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Gilbert Faccarello on Jul 18, 2015
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Nil repente ! Galiani and Necker on Economic Reforms
Abstract
The problem of the transition to a market economy provoked a lasting and important debate in eighteenth-century Ferance. The climax was reached during the 1760s and the 1770s with the two important pre-revoluntionary attempts, in 1763–64 and 1774a–76, to liberalize the French economy and, initially, the grain market. During these controversies, the reformers’ camp clearly split into two groups - the so-called ‘moderates’ and the alleged enthousiastes - which were apparently in deep disagreement as to the strategy to adopt in such circumstances. Among the ‘moderates’, two authors especially are of great interest: Ferdinando Galiani and Jacques Necker, who crystallized and developed the ideas of their camp to promote a strategy of prudence. This paper analyes their arguments on the issue at stake: the objectives and methods of a transition to a market economy. The historical and intellectual context of the debate is first briefly restated and the basic theoretical tenets of Galiani's and Necker's critique are then outlined. The various obstacles which, in our author's opinion, were likely to come from the opponents to a transition to a market economy or from its proponents are analysed, and Galiani's and Necker's main ideas on the best way to achieve successful reforms are stressed. Some provisional conclusions are dawn at the end.
... 282-4; Steiner (1994), págs. 209- 211; Faccarello (1994) ...
... Ha llegado el momento de preguntarnos por los motivos que explican esta poderosa penetración y si ésta requiere algún tipo de interpretación diferenciada. Existe una tesis central que interpreta la obra de Necker como una corriente de pensamiento reformista moderado, inserto en la contestación más amplia que venían conociendo, desde mediados de la década de 1760, los fisiócratas y las posibilidades reales de aplicar su liberalismo dogmático y radical [Faccarello (1994), pág. 522]. ...
... Además, presentaba la ventaja de que esas respuestas pertenecían a un ideario político y económico gradualista y moderado, que, no sólo encajaba muy bien en una Ilustración tan temperada como la española, sino que, en sus aspectos más sustanciales , ya había sido puesto en práctica en Francia durante el Ministerio de Necker. Conviene insistir en que la posición de éste, aunque haya sido valorada tradicionalmente como conservadora, aportaba una sincera propuesta de reformas económicas y sociales, eso sí en torno a una estrategia prudente que favorecía un largo período de transición hacia el régimen de libre competencia, en vez de una rápida implementación del laissez-faire [Faccarello (1994)]. En este sentido, la dicotomía Necker-Turgot, que de una u otra forma fue aflorando en buena parte de los países europeos en el último tramo del siglo XVIII, no debería ser examinada ...
... 25 On the relations between Neapolitan economic thought and the Physiocratic School, see Villari (1968). and deregulation of the grain trade had a huge impact in intellectual and court circles, dominating discussions of concrete economic policy issues (Steiner 1994;Faccarello 1994). Then, two laws enacted in 1762 and 1764 abolished virtually all restrictions on trade in grain and marked the political success of the school. ...
... 99-100; my translation) 29 26 About Galiani's anti-Physiocrat querelle, see Gaudemet (1899); Galiani (1959); Koch (1961); Tagliacozzo (1968); Kaplan (1979Kaplan ( , 2016; Steegmuller (1988); Klotz (2000). Important exponents of French culture intervened against the Physiocrats; see Faccarello (1994). 27 "Of the many errors by which our mind is beset and among which it perpetually wanders, very few would be left if it were possible to make people avoid those which stem from relative words taken in an absolute sense" (Galiani 1751, p. 179;quoted in Tagliacozzo 1968, p. 103). ...
The evolution of Ferdinando Galiani’s thought toward social mathematic has been neglected by scholars, and his attempt to establish political arguments on the analytical basis remains unexplored. The non-systematic nature of Galiani’s intuitions, due to his laziness, largely justifies this underestimation of his scientific program. This paper intends to show that the mature abbé Galiani follows an intellectual itinerary autonomous and parallel to that followed by Marquis de Condorcet in the same years. The anti-Physiocratique querelle represents Galiani’s methodological maturation. In contrast with Physiocratic economic doctrine, based on the primacy of deductive methodology, Galiani claims for economic science the realism of circumstance against aprioristic axiomatic hypotheses and rationalist generalizations. Galiani’s project, substantially similar to Marquis de Condorcet’s approach to social science, can be defined as Newtonian social mathematics opposed to Physiocratic Cartesian social mathematics.
... He also criticized from a pragmatic point of view (a perspective which also characterized Galiani) the abstract generalizations of economic behaviour of the Physiocrats. On these themes see Faccarello (1994). ...
In the seventeenth century and the early decades of the eighteenth, there occurred a conceptual reversal regarding the relationship between land and labour as agents of production of wealth. Authors of the seventeenth century attributed to labour – as “form” and “father” – a fundamental role in producing wealth, and they considered land as “matter” and “mother”, while Physiocrats attributed reproductive capacity only to land, and viewed labour as either mere support of nature or “sterile” transformative activity. These conceptions about the formation of wealth emerged not only from theoretical analyses but also from metaphors which had an important role in providing preliminary conceptual frameworks.
... 29 Un'altra conseguenza sarebbe il relativismo metodologico di Galiani, cioè il suo rifiuto di leggi economiche assolutamente univoche e necessarie. Sul metodo di Galiani il dibattito in letteratura è intenso (vedi da ultimo Faccarello 1994). Rinviando a Giocoli (1999) per maggiori approfondimenti, mi limito ad osservare che non è corretto considerare Galiani un anti-razionalista, un relativista assoluto o, peggio, un empirista. ...
1. Introduzione Questo lavoro ha per oggetto la teoria del valore di Ferdinando Ga- liani (1728-1787), contenuta nel Capo Secondo del Libro I de Della mo- neta (Galiani 1751 (1975)). L'obiettivo è fornirne un'interpretazione unitaria, eliminando i dubbi sulla sua robustezza logica. Essa infatti ap- pare internamente contraddittoria, perché l'autore prima definisce il va- lore come concetto relativo e soggettivo, ma poi afferma che la "fatica" è l'unica fonte del valore e l'unico fattore produttivo. La letteratura secondaria è divisa. Gli interpreti che considerano la "fatica" come quantità di lavoro sono portati a ritenere Galiani un pre- cursore anche della teoria del valore-lavoro. Questa è, ad esempio, la po- sizione di Schumpeter. La tesi contraria è quella di chi, come Hutchison, ritiene che in Galiani vi sia un'unica teoria del valore, basata sui principi generali dell'utilità e della rarità. Pertanto la "fatica" non rappresenta una quantità oggettiva di lavoro, ma una grandezza soggettiva, la disutilità o penosità del lavoro. Al massimo, nelle parole di Galiani si può intrave- dere un'anticipazione della teoria del costo reale soggettivo1. La mia tesi è che la "fatica" è lavoro, ma che non per questo Ga- liani propone una teoria del valore-lavoro. Un'analisi puntuale del te- sto, in particolare degli esempi utilizzati nel capitolo sul valore, dimo- stra che la teoria di Galiani non è affatto contraddittoria. Quella conte- nuta in Della moneta è una teoria del valore interamente soggettivista, fondata sul confronto tra piaceri alternativi, sui concetti di "volontà" e di "controllo" e sulla relazione tra grandezze stock e grandezze flusso.
The year 1775 witnessed the publication of the Spanish translation of Ferdi-nando Galiani's Dialogues sur le commerce des blés (1770). Although there is evi-dence that the book was very successful during the Spanish Enlightenment, the purpose of this work is to analyse in detail the impact of Galiani's Dialogues on late eighteenth century Spanish literature, using citation count methodology. The work concludes that Galiani's book was a decisive work in the shaping of econom-ic culture in Spain during the Spanish Enlightenment. Not only it was profusely quoted, but all its main economic theses were well received among the Spanish po-litical economists. Beyond the strategic debate on the grain trade, the book deci-sively contributed to outline central questions of the mainstream of the Spanish Enlightenment, such as those related to economic methodology and growth strate-gy. All this confirms that the Dialogues triumphed in Spain due to their powerful power of influence in the arena of economic policy.
Although many of Edmund Burke's speeches and writings contain prominent economic dimensions, his economic thought seldom receives the attention it warrants. Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke's Political Economy stands as the most comprehensive study to date of this fascinating subject. In addition to providing rigorous textual analysis, Collins unearths previously unpublished manuscripts and employs empirical data to paint a rich historical and theoretical context for Burke's economic beliefs. Collins integrates Burke's reflections on trade, taxation, and revenue within his understanding of the limits of reason and his broader conception of empire. Such reflections demonstrate the ways that commerce, if properly managed, could be an instrument for both public prosperity and imperial prestige. More importantly, Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke's Political Economy raises timely ethical questions about capitalism and its limits. In Burke's judgment, civilizations cannot endure on transactional exchange alone, and markets require ethical preconditions. There is a grace to life that cannot be bought.
This paper analyses the political and economic significance of T. Anzano's Análisis del comercio del trigo (1795), published as part of the Spanish edition of J.C. Hebert's Ensayo sobre la policía general de los granos, which Anzano himself translated. Hebert's essay is considered to be one of the most influential contributions to the moderate defence of free trade within the context of the European Enlightenment. As he had done in a previous publication of 1768, Anzano proposed certain modifications to the liberalization of the commerce of grains as set out in Pragmática (1765). However, while his earlier treatise had been formulated in opposition to an ideal of power represented by Campomanes, his Análisis del comercio was designed to support the interventionist tendency of the Concejo de Castilla, and therefore implied a critique of the liberal approach defended by Jovellanos' Informe de Ley Agraria (1795). This critique was informed by an inclination to defend the interests of consumers and agrarian workers, and was influenced by the English political model and a certain degree of republican humanism. Anzano's economic doctrines enshrined an approach that emphasized regulation and administration, and was marked by anti-physiocrat and cameralist influences.
This article analyses the reception of the work of Jacques Necker in Spain during the period of the Enlightenment. It studies in detail the different translations of his writings and the ways in which the Spanish of this period used the ideas of Necker in the different fields of political economy (chiefly public finances), grain trade, and territorial administration. This article demonstrates how translation and influence are closely tied, and how the importance of the circulation of these ideas in Spain at the end of the eighteenth century was largely determined by their political use.
Les débats récents sur la nature et les origines de la Révolution française ont fait clairement apparaître une chose : nous comprenons encore assez mal la dynamique de la culture politique française à la fin de l'Ancien Régime et les processus qui, dans le contexte d'une monarchie absolue, donnèrent naissance aux pratiques révolutionnaires.
Pour comprendre cette genèse, l'analyse de la nature et de la signification de la notion d'« opinion publique » dans la culture politique pré-révolutionnaire occupe une position centrale. J'essayerai, dans les pages qui suivent, d'en étudier plus complètement certains aspects.