------------ EH.NET BOOK REVIEW --------------  
Published by EH.NET (December 2005)  
  
Samuel Hollander, _Jean-Baptiste Say and the Classical Canon in   
Economics: The British Connection in French Classicism_. New York:   
Routledge, 2005. xiii + 322 pp. $150 (cloth), ISBN: 0-415-32338-X.  
  
Reviewed for EH.NET by Maria de F�tima Brand�o, Faculdade de   
Economia, Universidade do Porto, Portugal.  
  
  
_Jean-Baptiste Say and the Classical Canon in Economics_ by Samuel   
Hollander (University Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto and   
Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, Ben-Gurion   
University), is the latest component of a long-term research project   
that began to bear fruit in the early 1970s, with the publication of   
_The Economics of Adam Smith_ (1973), followed thereafter by _The   
Economics of David Ricardo_ (1979), _The Economics of John Stuart   
Mill_ (1985), _Classical Economics_ (1987) and _The Economics of   
Thomas Robert Malthus_ (1997). From another perspective, this book   
also bears witness to a renewed interest in the work of Jean-Baptiste   
Say since the mid-1990s, together with Palmer's _J.-B. Say: An   
Economist in Troubled Times_ (1997), Forget's _The Social Economics   
of Jean-Baptiste Say_ (1999), Whatmore's _Republicanism and the   
French Revolution: An Intellectual History of Jean-Baptiste SayZs   
Political Economy_ (2000), the recent reprint of _A Treatise on   
Political Economy_ (2001), and the collection of essays   
_Jean-Baptiste Say: Nouveaux regards sur son oeuvre_ (2003).  
  
Samuel Hollander's approach in the book under review stems from his   
concern with the classical canon in economics. This concern underlies   
both the much older argument on the absence of a revolutionary break   
between classical and neo-classical economics and the newer one on   
the absence "of a paradigmatic clash between the economics of   
Jean-Baptiste Say and of David Ricardo" (p. 1). In fact the earlier   
emphasis on "the French connection in British classicism" (Hollander   
1982), paved the way to the present emphasis on "the British   
connection in French classicism" and the recognition of Say's   
economics as part and parcel of canonical classicism, considering   
"Say's adherence to much of Ricardian theory" (p. 1). The evidence in   
favor of a substantive agreement between the representatives of the   
British and the French classicism is collected from the careful   
reading of Say's major economic works, reviews, articles and   
correspondence, and it is presented throughout the text by means of   
the transcription of as many excerpts from the original texts in   
French and English as are regarded adequate for the purposes of the   
argument. Meticulous attention is paid to the changes introduced in   
the several editions of the _Trait� d'�conomie politique_ between   
1803 and 1826, and to the last statement of Say's economics in the   
_Cours complet d'�conomie politique_ of 1828-29.  
  
The Introduction provides a summary view of the author's   
interpretation of Ricardo and a review of the literature on the   
Ricardo-Say relation. The next four chapters give account of the   
evolution of Say's position on value, distribution and growth (2 and   
3), on the nature of _riches_ (4), and on the Law of Markets (5).   
Chapter 6 offers an overview of Say's adherence to the classical   
canon, as regards substantive methodological and doctrinal matters,   
mostly in the context provided by the Ricardo-Say-Malthus exchanges.   
The Conclusion is reserved to disclaim the general impression of   
systemic discord between Say and Ricardo.  
  
As a result of the research undertaken, Hollander's offers a   
canonical interpretation of Say's economics, which is made   
essentially dependent upon the establishment of the correspondence   
between _doctrine of services_ and _cost theory_, the identification   
of _riches_ with _utilities_, and the fundamental principle that   
aggregate demand is regulated by production. On methodological   
grounds, Say's canonical position is built upon his overriding   
concern with the establishment of _general principles_, on the basis   
of an adequate empirical justification. Say therefore emerges as a   
classical theorist on his own and as a net contributor to a line of   
scientific inquiry inaugurated by Smith and developed into canon by   
Ricardo and the contributions of Malthus and Stuart Mill.  
  
SayZs methodological credentials are convincingly asserted, when his   
insistence on a _practical_ political economy is placed in the   
context of his strict allegiance to the vision of a political economy   
committed to the establishment of a _body of universally valid   
principles_, regardless of the circumstances of time and place that   
underlay their sound application to the understanding of particular   
problems and situations. In the same manner, Say's advocacy of   
Bacon's experimental method is placed in the context of his   
insistence "upon regarding the building up of general principles as   
basis for deductive exercises and the derivation of causal relations"   
(p. 234). Moreover, the stance against the Ricardian School is not   
regarded as being at variance with the "Ricardian methodological   
principle," given the circumstance that Say's "concern was to   
establish a proper empirical justification for the axiomatic base and   
assure responsible application, not to introduce an alternative   
'inductive' method" (p. 248).  
  
Say's doctrinal credentials are also convincingly asserted, as   
regards the Law of Markets. Temporal priority over James Mill is   
formally ascribed to Say, and he is cleared of the charge that he   
"emptied the law of all content by definitional sleights-of-hand" (p.   
24). Care is taken to contest Forget's assertion that "Say's   
amalgamation of the law [of markets] with his analysis of   
entrepreneurship allows us to distinguish his own use of the concept   
from that of the classical school" (2003: 60). As proof to the   
contrary, reference is made to the tribute paid to Say by Ricardo, on   
account of "the _principle_ of the Law of Markets ... whereby   
(balanced) growth can proceed at cost-covering prices unchecked by   
aggregate-demand constraints" (p. 224, author's emphasis).  
  
Say's doctrinal credentials regarding value and related distribution   
and growth issues are painstakingly presented, in order to document   
the "substantive identity of Say's doctrine of services and Ricardian   
cost theory" (p. 23), with due emphasis being laid on Say's   
subscription to the zero-rent, demand-determined extensive margin, to   
the inverse wage-profit relation, and to riches as a utility entity   
rather than as a value. However, it is precisely in this domain that   
Hollander's interpretation of Say's economics is most susceptible to   
give rise to critical examination. As a matter of fact, there is a   
systemic discord between the appraisal of Say's economics put forward   
in this book and the appraisals to be found in most of the relevant   
literature. Suffice it to mention the contributions of Steiner (1998,   
2003) and Gehrke and Kurz (2001), which stress the disagreement   
between Say and Ricardo in matters pertaining to value and   
distribution, on account of the role played by demand and supply.   
 From a different perspective, suffice it to mention the contribution   
by Arena (2001), which places Say in the context of a French   
classical school that diverges on substantive matters from the   
British classical school. In consequence, it is only to be expected   
that the publication of _Jean-Baptiste Say and the Classical Canon in   
Economics_ will give rise to a debate on HollanderZs canonical   
interpretation of Say that is as lively as the one that followed the   
presentation of the canonical interpretation of Ricardo in _The   
Economics of David Ricardo_.  
  
  
References:  
  
Arena, R. (2001) "J.-B. Say and the French Liberal School of the   
Nineteenth Century: Outside the Canon?" in _Reflections on the   
Classical Cannon in Economics_, E.L. Forget and S. Peart (eds.),   
London and New York, Routledge, pp. 205-23.  
  
Forget, E.L. (1999) _The Social Economics of Jean-Baptiste Say:   
Markets and Virtue_, London, Routledge.  
  
Forget, E.L. (2003) "Jean-Baptiste Say and the Law of Markets:   
Entrepreneurial Decision-Making in the Real World" in _Two Hundred   
Years of Say's Law_, S. Kates (ed.), Cheltenham, Edward Elgar, pp.   
39-66.  
  
Gehrke, C. and H.D. Kurz (2001) "Say and Ricardo on Value   
Distribution," _European Journal of the History of Economic Thought_   
8 (4), pp. 449-86.  
  
Hollander, S. (1982) "On the Substantive Identity of the Ricardian   
and Neo-classical Conceptions of Economic Organization: The French   
Connection British Classicism," _Canadian Journal of Economics_ 15   
(4), pp. 586-612.  
  
Palmer, R.R. (1997) _J.-B. Say: An Economist in Troubled Times_,   
Princeton, Princeton University Press.  
  
Potier, J.-P and A. Tiran, editors (2003) _Jean-Baptiste Say:   
Nouveaux regards sur son oeuvre_, Paris, Economica.  
  
Say, J.-B. (2001) _A Treatise on Political Economy_, with a new   
introduction by M. Quddus and S. Rashid, New Brunswick, Transaction   
Publishers.  
  
Steiner, P. (1998) "Jean-Baptiste Say: The Entrepreneur, the Free   
Trade Doctrine and the Theory of Income Distribution" in _Studies in   
the History of French Political Economy: From Bodin to Walras_, G.   
Faccarello (ed.), London, Routledge, pp. 196-228.  
  
Steiner, P. (2003) "La th�orie de la production de J.-B. Say/La   
production de richesses: les lessons du d�bat avec Ricardo" in   
_Jean-Baptiste Say: Nouveaux regards sur son oeuvre_, J.-P. Potier   
and A.Tiran (eds.), Paris, Economica, pp.325-60.  
  
Whatmore, R. (2000) _Republicanism and the French Revolution: An   
Intellectual History of Jean-Baptiste SayZs Political Economy_,   
Oxford, Oxford University Press.  
  
  
Maria de F�tima Brand�o teaches economic history and history of   
economic thought at the Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Porto,   
Portugal. She co-authored, with Ant�nio Almodovar, "La civilisation   
marchande et la discipline �conomique chez Jean-Baptiste Say" (in   
Jean-Baptiste Say: Nouveaux regards sur son oeuvre, J.-P. Potier and   
A. Tiran (eds.), Paris, Economica, 2003, pp. 127-46) and "On Building   
up a Market Society: Lessons from the _Wealth of Nations_ and _The   
Great Transformation_" (in _Economic Transition in Historical   
Perspective: Lessons from the History of Economics_, C.M.A. Clark and   
J. Rosicka (eds.), Aldershot, Ashgate, 2001, pp. 43-62).  
  
Copyright (c) 2005 by EH.Net. All rights reserved. This work may be   
copied for non-profit educational uses if proper credit is given to   
the author and the list. For other permission, please contact the   
EH.Net Administrator ([log in to unmask]; Telephone: 513-529-2229).   
Published by EH.Net (December 2005). All EH.Net reviews are archived   
at http://www.eh.net/BookReview.  
  
-------------- FOOTER TO EH.NET BOOK REVIEW  --------------  
EH.Net-Review mailing list  
[log in to unmask]  
http://eh.net/mailman/listinfo/eh.net-review