SAY. JEAN BAPTTSTE, an eminent French economist, was b. at Lyon, Jan. 5, 1767. Being destined by his father for a commercial career, he passed a part of his youth in England; and on his return to France, obtained a situation in a life insurance company, about which time he made his first acquaintance with the works of Adam Smith. During the revolution,he was forsome time secretary to Claviere, the minister of finance; and from 1794 to 1300 edited a journal called La Decade, in which he expounded with great effect the views of Smith. Already Say had acquired a distinguished reputation as a thinker by his Traite d'Economie Politique, on Simple Expose de la Maniere dont se forment, se dietrabaent et se consomment les ltichesses (Paris, 1803), and other works. dulled to the tribu nate in Nov., 1790, was not slow to express his disapprobation of the arbitrary tenden cies of the new consular government, and in 1804 he ceased to be a member of a body that had become a mere tool in the hands of Bonaparte. Under the despotism of the empire, Say was forced into private life, and betook himself to industrial pursuits, estab lishing (along with his son) at Auchy a large spinning-mill, which soon employed not less than 500 workmen; and when Bonaparte fell, Say found himself at the head of the economical and commercial movement that marked the epoch. In 1814 the second edition of his now celebrated Traitj appeared, dediCated to the emperor Alexander. who
had long called himself his " pupil ;" and in the same year the French government sent him to England to study the economical condition of that country. In 1819 a new Chair, that of Economic ladastrielle, was created for him at the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers; and Say added both to his influence and his popularity by the lucidity, grace, and intensity of conviction displayed in his lectures. In 1831 he was appointed professor of political economy at the College de France, but died Nov. 15, 1832. Although strictly a follower of Adam Smith, Say is an independent, sagacious, and penetrative thinker. Ricardo speaks of his works as containing " several accurate, original, and profound discussions." He was time first to teach Frenchmen to consider rationally such questions as customs duties, the currency, public credit, time colonies, and taxation; and though the brilliant socialistic theorizers say that he is not an economiste spiritualiste, many will consider that defect a merit. Besides his chef d'oeuvre already mentioned, Say wrote (among other works) De l'Angleteeve et des Anglaise (Par. 1812), Catechisme d' Economia Politique (Par. 1815), Lettres u .Malthus (Par. 1820), 001ITS Cootplet d'Economie Politlque (Par. 1828 1830), and Melanges et Correspondence (Par. 1333). His principal writings form vols. 9 to 12 in Guillaumin's Collection des economistes.