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I would like to confirm Barkley Rosser's conjecture.  The term  
"economist" (without "political" before it) was commonly used in  
France to refer to the Physiocratic clique -- notably by their  
opponents and with usually negative connotations (apparently, they  
did not use it to describe themselves).  I have found several  
passages from Diderot in the 1760s, for instance, where the term is  
used in this manner.  So did, of course, Adam Smith (Wealth of  
Nations, 1776: Bk. 4, Ch.9) and David Hume (I believe in a letter to  
Morellet c.1769, but I haven't been able to trace it).   
 
This use seems to have persisted into the 19th Century.  For  
instance, scanning J.B. Say's "Lettres a Malthus" (1820), the only  
references that I could find for the term was in  connection with the  
Physiocrats ("Qu'est-ce qui nous distingue des economistes de  
l'ecole de Quesnay?", and later on "ne recommencons pas le  
ridicule des economistes du XVIIIe siecle, par d'indeterminables  
discussions sur le produit net des terres"). David Ricardo, in his  
Principles (1817) never uses the term himself, but cites Buchanan  
(Ch. 17) and Malthus (Ch. 32), both of whom use the term  
"economist" clearly in relation to the Physiocrats.   
 
For the most part, it seems as if the term "economist" continued to  
be in a negative fashion for quite a while.  A prime example is  
Edmund Burke's well-known comment  "But the age of chivalry is  
gone. That of sophisters, economists; and calculators has  
succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever"  
(Reflections on Revolution in France, 1790).  Thomas Carlyle uses  
the term "economist" -- with and without the "political" prefix -- with  
even greater bitterness in his recurrent jibes (e.g. "Teach a parrot  
the terms supply-and-demand and you've got an economist.").   
 
Thomas de Quincey refers to the "utter feebleness of the main herd  
of modern economists" (Confessions of English Opium Eater,  
1821), and then goes on to praise Ricardo WITHOUT referring to  
him as an "economist".  James Mill (1821) and William Nassau  
Senior (1830) used  the term "political economist" positively, but  
never utter just plain "economist".   
 
So, I am not sure when it was first used without negative  
connotations.  I suppose The Economist newspaper (founded 1843)  
thought well of itself, so the term must have acquired positive  
meaning around then (or perhaps they were trying to advertise  
themselves with self-deprecating cheerfulness?)   
 
In support of Barkley Rosser's other conjecture, the term  
"economie politique" was, in fact, first used by Antoine de  
Montchritien (1615).   
 
Goncalo Fonseca 
 
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