Jean-Baptiste Say
| Jean-Baptiste Say | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
5 January 1767 Lyon, France |
| Died | 15 November 1832 (aged 65) Paris, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Field | Political economy |
| School or tradition |
Classical liberalism |
| Influences | Richard Cantillon, Adam Smith |
| Influenced | Auguste Comte, Thomas Hodgskin, Frédéric Bastiat |
| Contributions | Say's Law |
Jean-Baptiste Say (French: [ʒãbatist sɛ]; 5 January 1767 – 15 November 1832) was a French economist and businessman. He had classically liberal views and argued in favor of competition, free trade, and lifting restraints on business. He is best known for Say's Law, also known as the law of markets, which he popularized. Scholars disagree on the surprisingly subtle question of whether it was Say who first stated what we now call Say's Law.
Jean-Baptiste Say was born in Lyon. His father, Jean-Etienne Say, was born to a Protestant family which had moved from Nîmes to Geneva for some time in consequence of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. (His brother Louis Auguste (1774–1840) was also an economist). Say was intended to follow a commercial career, and in 1785 was sent, with his brother Horace, to complete his education in England. He lodged for a time in Croydon, and afterwards (following a return visit to France) in Fulham: during the latter period he was employed successively by two London-based firms of sugar merchants, James Baillie & Co and Samuel and William Hibbert. At the end of 1786 he accompanied Samuel Hibbert on a voyage to France which ended in December with Hibbert's death in Nantes. Say returned to Paris, where he found employment in the office of a life assurance company directed by Étienne Clavière.
His first literary attempt was a pamphlet on the liberty of the press, published in 1789. He later worked under Mirabeau on the Courrier de Provence. In 1792 he took part as a volunteer in the campaign of Champagne. In 1793 he assumed, in keeping with Revolutionary fashion, the pseudonym "Atticus"; and he became secretary to Clavière, then finance minister.
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