A check of JSTOR for "spontaneous order" in articles, reviews, and
opinion pieces in the journals listed there under Business,
Economics, and Finance, from 1700 to 1980, showed only one
possibility before Polanyi or Hayek. In W. Stark's article, "The
Realism of Saint-Simon's Program," Journal of Economic History, V, 1
(May 1945), Stark on page 26, footnote 10, oddly seems to quote (in
translation) Saint-Simon's "thought" on July 4, 1789, but without
quotations, on this question ("spontaneous order") in "the system of
industrialism." But the language of the "thought" suggests this is
just Stark's gloss on S-S's idea. Whoever wants to get into the
Oeuvres de Saint-Simon et d'Enfantin, maybe guided by Stark's
footnotes, could tell for sure.
John Womack
|