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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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