Jean-Baptiste Say: The Neglected Champion of Laissez-Faire

Biography
Say (1767-1832) was a French economist who enunciated the doctrine that became known as Say’s Law of Markets, an economic thesis for many years. He was born in Lyons on January 5, 1767 to middle-class Huguenot parents, and spent most of his early years in Geneva and London. As a young man, he was engaged in business in England. Returning to France at the outbreak of the French Revolution, in the employ of a life insurance company, he became a journalist after, being noted for his skill in expounding the economic principles of Adam Smith with force and clarity. From 1816, he was a professor of Political Economics at various institutions. Soon, he became an influential member of a group of strongly pro-free-market intellectuals. His devotion to laissez-faire principles appears to have been maintained throughout his life. He died in Paris on November 15, 1832.

Books, Laws, and Ideas
Written Masterpieces
Olbie, ou essai sur le moyens de réformer les moeurs d'une nation,...