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Referring only to England, proficiency in the French language used to be 
much more common than it is today, so the language would have been less of 
a barrier. Though young economists would typically be told that they had to 
learn German rather than French, the view was widely held that an economist 
could not confine his or her knowledge to work written in English. Oxford 
and Cambridge retained a foreign language entry requirement for 
undergraduates at least till the 1960s. Robbins read widely in the 
continental literature. Hicks certainly read Pareto in Italian. So it may 
be wrong to assume that language was the barrier to reading Walras. I leave 
others to speak about the USA. 
 
One way to approach the problem would be to find out whether university 
libraries had copies of Walras's works, and if so when they were acquired. 
You mention Friedman. Chicago's online catalog shows that they have 
editions dating from before 1949, though it does not show the acquisition 
dates. Some libraries will no doubt have kept records of who borrowed the 
books and when. 
 
Roger Backhouse 
 
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