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The republican foundations of Sismondi's Nouveaux principes d’économie politique

2004; Routledge; Volume: 31; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.histeuroideas.2004.03.007

1873-541X

Roberto Romani,

Historical and Literary Studies

Abstract This paper reassesses Sismondi's Nouveaux principes d'économie politique (1819) by locating the origins of his unorthodox political economy in the republican tradition of thought. Deeply influenced by both Smith and Rousseau, Sismondi first expounded his republican creed in a political treatise, Recherches sur les constitutions des peuples libres (1797–1801). He was in favour of a balanced constitution combined with public virtue. Sismondi's major historical work, the Histoire des républiques italiennes du Moyen Age (1807–1818), amounts to a tribute to the liberty and patriotism brought about by republican governments. After a brief examination of De la richesse commerciale (1803), the third section of the paper is devoted to a close analysis of the Nouveaux principes. The foci of interest are Sismondi's views on property, commercial wealth, work and leisure, division of labour, consumption and luxury, paper money and public credit, and citizenship. The paper concludes by suggesting that Sismondi managed to transform Genevan republicanism into a set of ideas which has nourished economic radicalism up to the present. Notes 1 D. Winch, Adam Smith's Politics. (Cambridge, 1978); R. Whatmore, Republicanism and the French Revolution: An Intellectual History of Jean-Baptiste Say's Political Economy. (Oxford, 2000). 2 See e.g. I. Hont and M. Ignatieff, Eds., Wealth and Virtue. The Shaping of Political Economy in the Scottish Enlightenment. (Cambridge, 1983); J.G.A. Pocock, Virtue, Commerce, and History. (Cambridge, 1985); A. Pagden, Ed., The Languages of Political Theory in Early Modern Europe. (Cambridge, 1987). 3 D. Wootton, 'Introduction: The Republican Tradition: From Commonwealth to Common Sense', in Id., Ed., Republicanism, Liberty, and Commercial Society, 1649–1776. (Stanford, 1994) 1–41. 4 For biographical accounts, see J.R. Salis, Sismondi 1773–1842: la vie et l'œuvre d'un cosmopolite philosophe. (Paris, 1932); P. Waeber, Sismondi. Une biographie, i: Les devanciers et la traversée de la Révolution. Chroniques familiales (1692–1800). (Geneva, 1991). See also F. Sofia, Una biblioteca ginevrina del Settecento: i libri del giovane Sismondi. (Rome, 1983). The son of a minister, Sismondi was born into a prosperous bourgeois family connected with the patrician elite. 5 See e.g. C. Gide and C. Rist, Histoire des doctrines économiques. (5th ed., Paris, 1926) 201–234; J.A. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis. (New York, 1954) 481–483, 622–623; P. Barucci, 'Introduzione', in J.-C.-L. Sismondi, Nuovi principi di economia politica o della ricchezza nei suoi rapporti con la popolazione, P. Roggi transl. (Milan, 1975) xiii–lx; M. Blaug, 'Sismondi, Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de (1773–1842)', in Id., Great Economists Before Keynes. (Brighton, 1986) 254–257. For Sismondi as a precursor who anticipated 'more celebrated economists' on a number of points, see T. Sowell, 'Sismondi: A Neglected Pioneer', History of Political Economy, 4 (1972) 62–88. Sismondi's treatise has been recently translated into English: New Principles of Political Economy, Ed. R. Hyse transl. (New Brunswick, 1991). 6 The influence on young Sismondi of republican writers like Cicero, Machiavelli, Rousseau, and John Adams is documented in F. Sofia, 'Le fonti sulla civiltà toscana nella biblioteca del giovane Sismondi', in Id., Ed., Sismondi e la civiltà toscana. (Florence, 2001) 145–163. 7 An episode of his youth is illuminating. At the age of 12, Sismondi amused himself by founding an ideal republic with his friends. They erected a monument to Rousseau, and decreed that in their republic everybody should be virtuous and happy. See Sismondi's contemporary chronicle of the 'République de Consigal' in J.-D. Candaux, 'L' 'Histoire de la République de Consigal' premier écrit de Sismondi (1785)', in Atti del colloquio internazionale sul Sismondi. (Rome, 1973) 129–158. For an overview of Sismondi's political environment, see L. Kirk, 'Genevan Republicanism', in Wootton, Republicanism, pp. 270–309. 8 See J.-C.-L. Sismondi, Études sur les constitutions des peuples libres. (Paris, 1836) ii–iv, and Sismondi to B. Milesi-Mojon, 14/6/1834, in J.-C.-L. Sismondi, Epistolario, Ed. C. Pellegrini. (5 vols., Florence, 1933–1975), iii, p. 230. 9 J.-C.-L. Sismondi, Recherches sur les constitutions des peuples libres. (Geneva, 1965) 93. 10 ibid., pp. 94–95. 11 ibid., pp. 97–98, 183. 12 ibid., pp.104–105, 130–131. 13 See esp. ibid., pp. 125–127, 160–163. 14 ibid., p. 134. For another reference to Harrington, see J.-C.-L. Sismondi, Histoire des républiques italiennes du Moyen Age. (16 vols., Paris, 1815–1818), i, p. 58. 15 Sismondi, Recherches, pp. 126–127, 142. But terminology is not consistently used; see e.g. p. 160. 16 ibid., p.164. 17 For explicit statements, see e.g. Histoire des républiques, xii, pp. 228–233; xvi, pp. 385–403. 18 Sismondi, Recherches, pp. 111–115. 19 ibid., p. 86. 20 ibid., pp. 111–113. 21 ibid., pp. 116–120. On the British government, deemed to be representative and free, see p. 128, fn. 6. 22 The conditions are, first, that all sections of the population must be represented, and, second, that representatives must obey the will of the represented. See ibid., pp. 126–127, 142–147, 166–167. Under a representative system, 'la nation jouit d'une liberté démocratique aussi complète que peut le comporter sa grandeur', p. 143. 23 See esp. ibid., pp. 119, 181, fn. 3, where he attempts to show that 'nous différons plutôt dans les mots que dans les choses'. On Stæl and Rousseau, see R. Romani, National Character and Public Spirit in Britain and France, 1750–1914. (Cambridge, 2002) 64–76. 24 In June 1762, the executive of the Genevan government issued a decree for the arrest of Rousseau and the burning of Emile and the Contrat social. In May 1763, Rousseau publicly renounced his Genevan citizenship, and a pamphlet war broke out. Rousseau's Lettres were written in reply to J.R. Tronchin's Lettres de la campagne (1763). See Kirk, 'Genevan Republicanism', pp. 290–300. 25 J.-J. Rousseau, Lettres écrites de la montagne (1764), in Id., Political Writings, Ed. C.E. Vaughan. (2 vols., Oxford, 1962), ii, pp. 201–212, 266–272. See F. Sofia, 'Sul pensiero politico-costituzionale del giovane Sismondi', Rassegna storica del Risorgimento, 68 (1981) 131–148. 26 Rousseau, Lettres, pp. 273–274, 280–282, quotation on p. 273. 27 Sismondi, Recherches, p. 181, fn. 3. 28 ibid., pp. 130–131, 273. 29 ibid., pp.134–135. See A. Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Eds. R.H. Campbell, A.S. Skinner, and W.B. Todd. (2 vols., Oxford, 1976) III. iv.10–11. 30 Sismondi, Recherches, pp. 312–313. In the case of the Italian republics, the march of corruption was accelerated by bad laws and other factors, pp. 313–314. 31 ibid., pp. 314–315, 319–320. 32 In 1813 Sismondi considered Machiavelli's Discorsi as the starting point of modern political thought: J.-C.-L. Sismondi, De la littérature du Midi de l'Europe (1813; 2 vols., Brussels, 1837), i, p. 408. Harrington denounced luxury, as many other Commonwealthmen did. Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, for one, ascribed the decline of freedom in Europe and in Italy in particular to the luxury that trade with Asia and America had made possible: C. Robbins, The Eighteenth-Century Commonwealthman. (Cambridge, MA, 1959) 182. For French influences, see Ed. C. Borghero, La polemica sul lusso nel Settecento francese. (Turin, 1974). 33 See Sismondi, Histoire des républiques, i, pp. iv–vi; ix, pp. 2–4; xii, pp. 6–7. On the meaning of perfectibilité, see Sismondi to Stæl, 21/1/1801, in Sismondi, Epistolario, i, pp. 10–11. On Machiavelli on fortuna and corruption, see J.G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment. (Princeton, 1975) 157–218. 34 Scottish philosophers 'agreed that something had been lost with the decay of ancient virtue and something gained with the rise of modern commerce, but [they] disagreed on the ... conclusions to be drawn': J.G.A. Pocock, 'Between Gog and Magog: the Republican Thesis and the ideologia americana', Journal of the History of Ideas, 48 (1987) 340. 35 Young maintained that agriculture alone had enriched Italy: J.-C.-L. Sismondi, Tableau de l'agriculture toscane. (Florence, 1980) 284. Compare Smith, Wealth of Nations, III. iv. 23. 36 Sismondi, Tableau, pp. 284–297, quotation on p. 288. 37 R. Pozzi, 'Sismondi e la storia come storia della libertà', Contemporanea, 1 (1998), 141. For Sismondi's praise of the patriotism of merchants and artisans, see Histoire des républiques, iv, pp. 155–166. 38 Sismondi, Histoire des républiques, xii, pp. 6–7. 39 ibid., e.g. iv, p. 422; vi, pp. 82–83. 40 ibid., xii, pp. 171–173. 41 ibid., xii, pp. 228–233. 42 ibid., xvi, pp.357–406. 43 ibid., iv, pp. 154–157. 44 Winch, Adam Smith's Politics, pp. 113–120. 45 A classic study is A. Babel, 'À propos de la conversion de Sismondi', in Studi su G. C. L. Sismondi. (Rome and Bellinzona, 1945) 245–282. 46 J.-C.-L. Sismondi, De la richesse commerciale. (2 vols., Geneva, 1803), i, p. 251. 47 On the 'general glut' controversy which reached its peak in the 1820s, see T. Sowell, Say's Law. (Princeton, 1972) 115–141. Sismondi's break with the classical tradition came in 1815, when he wrote an article, 'Political Economy', for the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia (1818). Here he presented the kernel of the argument which was later developed in the Nouveaux principes. 48 Sismondi, De la richesse, i, pp.36, 54; ii, pp. 256, 447. 49 ibid., i, pp. 115–118, 175ff. 50 ibid., i, p. 263. 51 ibid., i, pp. viii–xv. See also J.-C.-L. Sismondi, Statistique du département du Léman, Ed. H.O. Pappe. (1801–1812; Geneva, 1971) 61–63. 52 J.-C.-L. Sismondi, Nouveaux principes d'économie politique. (2 vols., Paris, 1819), i, pp. 7–10. 53 Sismondi, Histoire des républiques, iv, p. 166, 421; xii, p. 34. 54 See H.O. Pappe, 'La formation de la pensée socio-économique de Sismondi: Sismondi et Adam Smith', in Sismondi européen. (Geneva and Paris, 1976) 13–34; and T. Raffaelli, 'Citizenship and the Market: Roussevian and Smithian Themes in the Evolution of Sismondi's Thought', Eds. G. Forges Davanzati and V. Gioia, Reflections on Economic Development: From the Enlightenment to the Classical School. (Lecce, 1999) 63–84. 55 Sismondi, Nouveaux principes, i, pp. 49–52, quotation on p. 52; ii, pp. 93–118. 56 ibid., ii, pp. 335–336. See also i, pp.v–vi, 1–3, 8–10; ii, p. 248. 57 Sismondi does not use the term 'capitalism' in the Nouveaux principes, but 'capitalism' is preferable to both 'industrialism' (because high farming was one of his targets) and 'commercial society' (with its 18th-century associations). 58 Sismondi, Nouveaux principes, i, pp. 366, 368, 370. 59 ibid., i, pp. 382–384. See also ii, pp. 314–315. 60 ibid., i, pp. 159–165, 199–200. Although here Sismondi's point applies to property in land, it is clear that to him all forms of property entail a social responsibility; see e.g. ii, pp. 357–361. 61 ibid., i, pp. 106–108. 62 ibid., i, pp. 108–109. 63 ibid., i, pp. 229–331. 64 ibid., ii, pp. 342–344ff. 65 ibid., i, pp. 282–285. Another 'republican' strong point of agriculture is that it favours 'les qualités du corps propres à faire de ces hommes de bons soldats, et ... celles de l'âme, qui en peuvent faire de bons citoyens', i, p. 150. 66 For an interpretation along these lines, although couched in Marxist terms, see H. Grossman, Simonde de Sismondi et ses théories économiques. (Warsaw, 1924). 67 Sismondi, Nouveaux principes, i, pp. 289, 301–303. On the evils of commercial wealth in the USA, see i, pp. 427–432. 68 ibid., ii, pp. 252–255, 260–265, 302–303. See also i, pp. 403–408. For Sismondi's critique of Malthus, see ii, pp. 266–289. 69 ibid., ii, pp. 259–260. 70 ibid., i, pp. 166–168. 71 ibid., i, pp. 221–222. 72 ibid., i, pp. 170–171, 173–175. 73 ibid., ii, p. 330, fn.1. 74 ibid., i, pp. 370–372. See also ii, pp. 315–319. 75 ibid., i, pp. 91–92, 225, 348–350, 353–355. 76 ibid., i, p. 355; ii, p. 214. 77 Sismondi, Tableau, pp. xi–xiii, 102–105. 78 Sismondi, Nouveaux principes, i, pp. 355–358. 79 See esp. Stæl's De la littérature (1800), Corinne (1807), and De l'Allemagne (1813), as well as Bonstetten's L'homme du Midi et l'homme du Nord (1824). There was also a contribution by Sismondi, the lengthy and repetitive De la littérature du Midi. For an overview, see Romani, National Character, pp. 19–92ff. 80 See R. Romani, 'Political Economy and Other Idioms: French Views on English Development, 1815–1848', European Journal of the History of Economic Thought, 9 (2002) 359–383. In the 1827 text, see esp. 'Avertissement de la seconde édition'. 81 Sismondi, Nouveaux principes, i, pp. 78–79; ii, pp. 345–348, 357–358. 82 ibid., i, pp. 79–83, 115–117, 332–333. 83 ibid., i, pp. 331–336, 375–378. 84 ibid., ii, pp. 322–328. This would happen because technological advance results in commodities of a higher quality, and therefore prices do not decrease. Additionally, new machinery regularly reduces total income (revenue) by displacing labour, and this depresses demand for goods. See Sowell, Says's Law, p. 68. 85 Sismondi, Nouveaux principes, ii, 93–94ff., 108–112ff., 116–117, 119–137, 224. 86 ibid., ii, pp. 225–247. 87 ibid., ii, p. 335. 88 ibid., i, pp. 173–177, 316–318, 378–379ff.; ii, pp. 152–154, 344. 89 ibid., i, pp. 54–55. 90 ibid., i, pp. 234–235; ii, pp. 306–309, 342–344, 345–353, 357–363. 91 ibid., i, pp. 223–224, 350–352; ii, pp. 303–306, 314. 92 ibid., i, pp. 297–298, 316–318, 385. 93 Besides the re-establishment of craft guilds and the regulation of marriages, there is his recommendation that in emergency conditions–the example of British agriculture is made–'indirect means' of reform do not suffice: ibid., ii, p. 340. 94 ibid., ii, pp. 282–284, 286–287, 289, 314–315. 95 As regards the peculiarities of Sismondi's influence on Marx, see Grossmann, Simonde de Sismondi, and A.G. Ricci, Sismondi e il marxismo. (Rome, 1973). For a recent interpretation of Sismondi as an institutionalist, see J.-J. Gislain, 'Sismondi and the Evolution of Economic Institutions', in Ed. G. Faccarello, Studies in the History of French Political Economy. (London and New York, 1998) 229–253. 96 Sismondi, Nouveaux principes, i, p. 79. 97 ibid., i, pp. 196–200, 378–381. 98 ibid., i, p. 288.