Jean-Baptiste Léon Say French statesman and economist, was born in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

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Biography

The family was a most remarkable one. His grandfather Jean-Baptiste Say

Jean-Baptiste Say

Jean-Baptiste Say was a French economist and businessman. He had classically liberal views and argued in favor of competition, free trade, and lifting restraints on business...

 was a well-known economist. His brother Louis Auguste Say (1774–1840), director of a sugar refinery at Nantes, wrote several books against his theories. His son Horace Émile Say (1794–1860), the father of Léon Say, was educated at Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, and had travelled in America

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 before establishing himself in business in Paris, where he became president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1848. His careful investigations into the condition of industry at Paris gained for him a seat in the Academy of political and moral sciences, 1857.

Léon Say thus inherited zeal for economic studies, of which he gave proof by publishing at the age of twenty-two a brief Histoire de la caisse descompte. He was at first destined for the law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

, next entered a bank, and finally obtained a post in the administration of the Chemin de fer du Nord

Chemin de Fer du Nord

Chemin de Fer du Nord , often referred to simply as the Nord company, was a rail transport company created in September 1845, in Paris, France. It was owned by among others de Rothschild Frères of France, N M Rothschild & Sons of London, England, Hottinger, Laffitte and Blount...

. Meanwhile he became a regular contributor to the Journal des débats, where he established his reputation by a series of brilliant attacks on the financial administration of the prefect of the Seine, Haussmann

Baron Haussmann

Georges-Eugène Haussmann, commonly known as Baron Haussmann , was a French civic planner whose name is associated with the rebuilding of Paris...

.

He displayed talent for interesting popular audiences in economic questions. His sympathies, like those of his grandfather, were with the British school of economists; he was, indeed, the hereditary defender of free-trade

Free trade

Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...

 principles in France. He had, moreover, an intimate acquaintance with the English language and institutions, and translated into French Goschen's Theory of Foreign Exchanges.

He was one of the pioneers of the co-operative movement in France. Elected to the Assembly of 1871 by the departments of Seine and Seine-et-Oise

Seine-et-Oise

Seine-et-Oise was a département of France encompassing the western, northern, and southern parts of the metropolitan area of Paris. Its préfecture was Versailles and its official number was 78. Seine-et-Oise was abolished in 1968....

, he adopted the former, and took his seat among the Moderate Liberals, to whose principles he adhered throughout his life. He was immediately chosen as reporter of the commission on the state of the national finances, and in this capacity prepared two elaborate statements. Thiers

Adolphe Thiers

Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers was a French politician and historian. was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871...

, though opposing their publication on grounds of public expediency, was much struck by the ability displayed in them, and on June 5 appointed Say prefect of the Seine.

The fall of the empire, the siege of Paris

Siege of Paris

The Siege of Paris, lasting from September 19, 1870 – January 28, 1871, and the consequent capture of the city by Prussian forces led to French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the establishment of the German Empire as well as the Paris Commune....

, and the Commune

Paris Commune

The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...

 had reduced the administration of the capital to chaos, and the task of reconstruction severely tried the new prefect's power of organization. This was, however, a gift with which he was pre-eminently endowed; and he only quit his post to assume, in December 1872, the ministry of finance—a remarkable tribute to his abilities from Thiers, who himself held strongly protectionist views.

In all other respects Say regarded himself as the disciple of Thiers, who, in his last public utterance, designated Say as one of the younger men who would carry on his work. He fell from office with Thiers on May 24, 1873, and was elected president of the Left Centre group, as whose candidate he unsuccessfully contested the presidency of the Chamber with Buffet

Louis Buffet

Louis Joseph Buffet was a French statesman.He was born at Mirecourt, Vosges. After the revolution of February 1848 he was elected deputy for the department of the Vosges, and in the Assembly sat on the right, pronouncing for the repression of the insurrection of June 1848 and for Louis Napoleon...

. In spite of their divergence of views, he consented, at the urgent request of President MacMahon, to take office in March 1875 in the Buffet Cabinet; but the reactionary policy of the premier led to a dispute between him and Say both in the press and in the constituencies, and brought about Buffet's resignation.

Say continued to hold the ministry of finance under Dufaure and Jules Simon

Jules Simon

Jules François Simon was a French statesman and philosopher, and one of the leader of the Opportunist Republicans faction.-Biography:Simon was born at Lorient. His father was a linen-draper from Lorraine, who renounced Protestantism before his second marriage with a Catholic Breton. Jules Simon...

, and again in the Dufaure ministry of December 1877, and its successor, the Waddington ministry, till December 1879. During this long period, in which he was practically the autocratic ruler of the French finances, he had first to complete the payment of the war indemnity—an operation which, thanks largely to his consummate knowledge of foreign exchanges, was effected long before the prescribed time. It was at a conference held between Say, Gambetta

Léon Gambetta

Léon Gambetta was a French statesman prominent after the Franco-Prussian War.-Youth and education:He is said to have inherited his vigour and eloquence from his father, a Genovese grocer who had married a Frenchwoman named Massabie. At the age of fifteen, Gambetta lost the sight of his right eye...

 and M. de Freycinet

Charles de Freycinet

Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet was a French statesman and Prime Minister during the Third Republic; he belonged to the Opportunist Republicans faction. He was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences, and in 1890, the fourteen member to occupy seat the Académie française.-Early years:He...

 in 1878 that the great scheme of public works introduced by the latter was adopted.

Say's general financial policy was to ameliorate the incidence of taxation. As a pendant to his free-trade principles, he believed that the surest way of enriching the country, and therefore the Treasury, was to remove all restrictions on internal commerce. He accordingly reduced the rate of postage, repealed the duties on many articles of prime utility, such as paper, and fought strongly, though unsuccessfully, against the system of octrois.

On April 30, 1880 he accepted the post of ambassador in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 for the purpose of negotiating a commercial treaty between France and England, but the presidency of the Senate falling vacant, he was elected to it on May 25, having meanwhile secured a preliminary understanding, the most important feature of which was a reduction of the duty on the cheaper class of French wine

French wine

French wine is produced in several regions throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France has the world's second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is in the position of being the world's largest wine producer...

s.

In January 1882 he became minister of finance in the Freycinet Cabinet, which was defeated in the following July on the Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian question. Says influence over the rising generation grew less; his academic Liberalism was regarded as old-fashioned; Socialism, which he never ceased to attack, obtained even greater power, and free-trade was discarded in favor of M. Méline's policy of protection, against which Say vainly organized the Ligue contre le renchrissement du pain. He had, however, a large share in the successful opposition to the income tax

Income tax

An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...

, which he considered likely to discourage individual effort and thrift.

In 1889 he quit the Senate to enter the Chamber as member for Pau, in the belief that his efforts for Liberalism

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

 were more urgently needed in the popular Assembly. Throughout his career he was indefatigable both as a writer and as a lecturer on economics, and in both capacities exerted a far wider influence than in parliament.

Special mention must be made of his work, as editor and contributor, on the Dictionnaire des finances and Nouveau Dictionnaire d'économie politique. His style was easy and lucid, and he was often employed in drawing up important official documents, such as the famous presidential message of December 1877. He was for many years the most prominent member of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, and in 1886 succeeded to Edmond About's seat in the Académie française

Académie française

L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...

. He died in Paris on the 21st of April 1896. A selection of his most important writings and speeches has since been published in four volumes under the title of Les Finances de la France sous la troisime république (1898 1901).

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