Œconomia (Sep 2016)

L’esclavage colonial : une comparaison des approches de Say, Sismondi et des saint-simoniens

  • Gilles Jacoud

DOI
https://doi.org/10.4000/oeconomia.2424
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 3
pp. 363 – 402

Abstract

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If in the last decades of the eighteenth century the rift between physiocrats and the opponents of economic liberalism tended to overlap the one opposing those who rejected slavery in the French colonies to those who wanted its upholding, in the first part of the nineteenth century, the rift between Say, Sismondi and the Saint-Simonians did no more result in a clear opposition on questions of slavery. All championed its abolition and the controversial possibility that the profitability of a slave was superior to that of a freeman could not justify its upholding. Over and beyond the calculations of this cost effectiveness, on which Say’s position evolved over time, the reflection is less about the interests of the colonists than that of society in general. Say, Sismondi and the Saint-Simonians considered the economy would not be affected by a withdrawal from slavery and advocated for a progressive abolition in line with new economic models for the colonies.

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