View source for Jean-Baptiste Say

{{Short description|French economist and businessman (1767–1832)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox economist
| name             = Jean-Baptiste Say
| image            = Jean-Baptiste Say.jpg
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1767|1|5|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Lyon]], [[Kingdom of France]]
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1832|11|15|1767|1|15|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Paris]], France
| institution      =
| field            = [[Political economy]]
| school_tradition = [[French Liberal School]]
| alma_mater       =
| influences       = [[Richard Cantillon]], [[Adam Smith]], [[Pietro Verri]]
| contributions    = [[Say's law]], [[entrepreneurship]]
| awards           =
| signature        = <!-- File name only. -->
| repec_prefix     =
| repec_id         =
}}
'''Jean-Baptiste Say''' ({{IPA|fr|ʒɑ̃batist sɛ|lang}}; 5 January 1767 – 15 November 1832) was a [[Economic liberalism|liberal]] French economist and businessman who argued in favor of [[Competition (economics)|competition]], [[free trade]] and lifting restraints on business. He is best known for [[Say's law]]—also known as the law of markets—which he popularized, although scholars disagree as to whether it was Say who first articulated the theory.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thweatt |first=William O. |chapter=Early Formulators of Say's Law |editor1-last=Wood|editor1-first=John Cunningham |editor2-last=Kates|editor2-first=Steven |title=Jean-Baptiste Say: Critical Assessments|volume=5 |date=2000|place=London|publisher=Routledge |isbn=0415232406 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=EcaDC1q_eaAC&pg=PA78 78–93]}} However, Although Braudel notes a variety of different readings of Say's law, they all agree around some formulation of whereby supply creates demand at least eventually if not immediately.</ref><ref>Braudel, Fernand (1979). ''The Wheels of Commerce: Civilisation and Capitalism 15th–18th Century''. [https://books.google.com/books?id=WPDbSXQsvGIC&pg=PA181 p. 181].</ref> Moreover, he was one of the first economists to study [[entrepreneurship]] and conceptualized entrepreneurs as organizers and leaders of the economy.<ref name="Entrepreneurship">{{cite journal|last=Koolman|first=G.|year=1971|title=Say's Conception of the Role of the Entrepreneur|journal=Economica|volume=38|issue=151|pages=269–286|doi=10.2307/2552843|jstor=2552843}}</ref> He was also closely involved in the development of the [[ESCP Business School|École spéciale de commerce et d'industrie]] (ESCP), historically the first business school to be established.

== Early life ==
[[File:Say map.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Map of [[Croydon]], drawn by the 18-year-old Say in 1785]]
Say was born in [[Lyon]]. His father Jean-Etienne Say was born to a [[Protestant]] family which had moved from [[Nîmes]] to [[Geneva]] for some time in consequence of the revocation of the [[Edict of Nantes]]. Say was intended to follow a commercial career and in 1785 was sent with his brother Horace to complete his education in England.{{sfn|Ingram|1911|p=274}} He lodged for a time in [[Croydon]] and afterwards (following a return visit to France) in [[Fulham]]. During the latter period, he was employed successively by two London-based firms of sugar merchants, James Baillie & Co and Samuel and William Hibbert.<ref>{{citation|first=Brian|last=Lancaster|title=Jean-Baptiste Say's 1785 Croydon street plan|journal=Croydon Natural History & Scientific Society Bulletin|volume=144|date=March 2012|pages=2–5}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Brian|last=Lancaster|year=2015|title=Jean-Baptiste Say's First Visit to England (1785/6)|journal=History of European Ideas|volume=41|issue=7|pages=922–930|doi=10.1080/01916599.2014.989676|s2cid=144520487}}</ref> At the end of 1786, he accompanied Samuel Hibbert on a voyage to France which ended in December with Hibbert's death in [[Nantes]]. Say returned to Paris, where he found employment in the office of a [[life assurance]] company directed by [[Étienne Clavière]]. His brother [[Louis Auguste Say|Louis Auguste]] (1774–1840) also became an economist.

== Writings, teaching and entrepreneurship ==
[[File:Say - Lettres a M. Malthus, 1820 - 5496950.tif|thumb|upright|Title page of Say's ''Lettres à M. Malthus, sur différens sujets d'économie politique'', published in 1820]]
Say's first literary attempt was a pamphlet on the liberty of the press, published in 1789. He later worked under [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de Mirabeau|Mirabeau]] on the ''Courrier de Provence''. In 1792, he took part as a volunteer in the campaign of [[Champagne (province)|Champagne]]. In 1793, he assumed in keeping with [[French Revolution]]ary fashion the pseudonym Atticus and became secretary to [[Étienne Clavière]], the then finance minister.{{sfn|Ingram|1911|p=274}}

From 1794 to 1800, he edited a periodical, entitled ''La Decade philosophique, litteraire, et politique'', in which he expounded the doctrines of [[Adam Smith]]. He had by this time established his reputation as a publicist and when the [[French Consulate|consular government]] was established in 1799 he was selected as one of the 100 members of the [[Tribunat]], resigning the editorship of the ''Decade''. In 1798, Say published ''Olbie, ou essai sur les moyens de réformer les mœurs d'une nation''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kim |first=Minchul |date=2025 |title=Jean-Baptiste Say and the Political Economy of Republican Utopia in Revolutionary France |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1468-229X.70053 |journal=History |language=en |doi=10.1111/1468-229X.70053 |issn=1468-229X|doi-access=free }}</ref> In 1803, he published his principal work, the ''[[Say's Political Economy|Traité d'économie politique ou simple exposition de la manière dont se forment, se distribuent et se composent les richesses]]''.{{sfn|Ingram|1911|p=274}} Having proved unwilling to compromise his convictions in the interests of [[Napoleon]], Say was removed from the office of tribune in 1804. He turned to industrial activities and after having familiarised himself with the processes of cotton manufacture he established a [[Cotton mill|spinning-mill]] at [[Auchy-lès-Hesdin]] in the [[Pas de Calais]] which employed some 400–500 people, mainly women and children. He devoted his leisure time to revising his economic treatise which had been out of print for some time, but the system of state censorship in place prevented him from republishing it.

In 1814, Say availed himself (to use his own words) of the relative liberty arising from the [[War of the Sixth Coalition|entrance of the allied powers into France]] to bring out a second edition of the work dedicated to the emperor [[Alexander I of Russia]], who had professed himself his pupil. In the same year, the French government sent him to study the economic condition of the United Kingdom. The results of his observations appeared in a tract, ''De l'Angleterre et des Anglais''. A third edition of the ''Traité'' appeared in 1817.{{sfn|Ingram|1911|p=274}}

A chair of industrial economy was established for him in 1819 at the [[Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers]]. In 1825, he became a member of the improvement council of the ''École spéciale de commerce et d'industrie'', later renamed École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris, now [[ESCP Business School]], one of the first [[business school]]s in the world. In 1831, he was made professor of political economy at the [[Collège de France]]. In 1828–1830, he published his ''Cours complet d'économie politique pratique''.{{sfn|Ingram|1911|p=274}}

== Say's law ==
{{further|Say's law}}
Say is well known for Say's law, or the law of markets, often controversially summarised as:
* "[[Aggregate supply]] creates its own [[aggregate demand]]"
* "[[Supply creates its own demand]]"

Say's law is instead uncontroversially summarized as:
* "Supply constitutes its own demand"
* "Inherent in supply is the wherewithal for its own consumption" (direct translation from French ''Traité d'économie politique'')

The exact phrase "supply creates its own demand" was coined by [[John Maynard Keynes]], who criticized it as in the former two, equating all four of these statements to mean the same thing. Some economists, including some advocates of Say's law who dispute this characterization as a misrepresentation,<ref>{{cite book | last=Clower |first=Robert W. |chapter=Trashing J.B. Say: the story of a mare's nest |editor1-last=Fitoussi | editor1-first=Jean-Paul | editor2-last=Velupillai | editor2-first=Kumaraswamy | title=Macroeconomic theory and economic policy : essays in honour of Jean-Paul Fitoussi | publisher=Routledge | publication-place=London | date=2004 | isbn=0203356500 | oclc=252932434 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzzClShefiYC |page=92}}</ref> have disputed his interpretation, claiming that Say's law can actually be summarized more accurately as "production precedes consumption" and that Say was claiming that in order to consume one must produce something of value so that one can trade this (either in the form of money or barter) in order to consume later.{{Citation needed|reason=a Twitter rant does not constitute a reliable academic source|date=April 2024}}

Similar sentiments through different wordings appear in the work of [[John Stuart Mill]] (1848) and his father [[James Mill]] (1808). The Scottish classical economist James Mill restates Say's law in 1808, writing that "production of commodities creates, and is the one and universal cause which creates a market for the commodities produced".<ref>Mill, James (1808). ''Commerce Defended''. [http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1668&layout=html "Chapter VI: Consumption"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224092944/https://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=1668&layout=html |date=24 February 2021 }}. p. 81.</ref>

In Say's language, "products are paid for with products" (1803, p.&nbsp;153) or "a glut can take place only when there are too many means of production applied to one kind of product and not enough to another" (1803, pp.&nbsp;178–179). Explaining his point at length, he wrote the following:<ref>[http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/say.htm "Information on Jean-Baptiste Say"].{{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090326021523/http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/say.htm|date=26 March 2009}}</ref>
{{blockquote|It is worthwhile to remark that a product is no sooner created than it, from that instant, affords a market for other products to the full extent of its own value. When the producer has put the finishing hand to his product, he is most anxious to sell it immediately, lest its value should diminish in his hands. Nor is he less anxious to dispose of the money he may get for it; for the value of money is also perishable. But the only way of getting rid of money is in the purchase of some product or other. Thus the mere circumstance of creation of one product immediately opens a vent for other products.<ref>Say, Jean-Baptiste (1803). ''A Treatise on Political Economy''. pp. 138–139.</ref>}}

Say also wrote that it is not the abundance of money, but the abundance of other products in general that facilitates sales:<ref>Say, Jean-Baptiste (1803). ''A Treatise on Political Economy''. Translated from the fourth edition of the French in 2001. Batoche Books Kitchener. p. 57.</ref>
{{blockquote|Money performs but a momentary function in this double exchange; and when the transaction is finally closed, it will always be found, that one kind of commodity has been exchanged for another.}}

Say's law may also have been culled from [[Ecclesiastes]] 5:11 – "When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?" ([[King James Version|KJV]]). Say's law has been considered by [[John Kenneth Galbraith]] as "the most distinguished example of the stability of economic ideas, including when they are wrong".<ref>{{citation|first=John Kenneth|last=Galbraith|title=Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went|location=Boston|publisher=Houghton Mifflin|year=1975|isbn=0395198437}}.</ref>

Say's law emerged during the early period of the [[Industrial Revolution]], at a time when the economic phenomena of increased output merged with England's cyclical inability to maintain both sales and unemployment. This led many to believe that there was a limit to the growth of production, and there may come a point when there is no means of purchasing all output generated. Say's law of markets deals with the fact that production of commodities causes income to be paid to suppliers of the components of capital, labor, and land used in producing these goods and services. The sale price of these commodities is the sum of the payments of wages, rents, and profit.<ref>{{cite book |last=Sowell |first=Thomas |title=Say's Law: An Historical Analysis |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |year=1972 |isbn=978-1400871223 }}</ref> Income generated during production of a commodity equals the value of that commodity. Therefore, an increase in the supply of output will result in an increase in the income necessary to generate demand for those products.

== Theory of entrepreneurship ==
{{Capitalism sidebar|Intellectuals}}
In the ''Treatise'', his main economic work, Say stated that any production process required effort, knowledge and the "application" of the entrepreneur. According to him, entrepreneurs are intermediaries in the production process who combine productive agents such as land, capital and labor in order to meet the demand of consumers. As a result, they play a central role in the economy and fulfil a coordinating role.<ref name="Entrepreneurship"/>

Besides studying large-scale entrepreneurs, Say looked at people working for themselves:
{{blockquote|When a workman carries on an enterprise on his own account, as the knife grinder in the streets, he is both workman and entrepreneur.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://mises.org/library/catechism-political-economy|title=Catechism of Political Economy|last=Say|first=Jean-Baptiste|year=1821|newspaper=Mises Institute|access-date=13 August 2019}}</ref>}}

Say also thought about which qualities are essential for successful entrepreneurs and highlighted the quality of judgement. To his mind, entrepreneurs have to continuously assess market needs and the means which could meet them, which requires an "unerring market sense".<ref name="Entrepreneurship"/>

As he emphasized the coordinating function of entrepreneurs, Say viewed entrepreneurial income primarily as high wages that are paid in compensation for the skills and expert knowledge of entrepreneurs. He did so by making a distinction between the enterprise function and the supply-of-capital-function which allowed him to look at the earnings of the entrepreneur on the one hand and the remuneration of capital on the other hand. This clearly differentiates his theory from that of [[Joseph Schumpeter]], who described entrepreneurial rent as short-term profits that compensate for high risk ([[Schumpeterian rent]]).<ref name="Entrepreneurship"/> Say also touched upon [[risk]] and [[uncertainty]] as well as [[innovation]] when discussing entrepreneurship, although he never deeply investigated their relationships. However, Say stated:
{{blockquote|[In any enterprise activity] there is an abundance of obstacles to be surmounted, of anxieties to be repressed, of misfortunes to be repaired, and of expedients to be devised [...] [and] there is always a degree of risk attending such undertakings.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Treatise on Political Economy|last=Say|first=Jean-Baptiste|publisher=Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger|year=1880|location=Philadelphia|pages=331}}</ref>}}
{{blockquote|Sometimes a manufacturer discovers a process, calculated either to introduce a new product, to increase the beauty of an old one, or to produce with greater economy.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Treatise on Political economy.|last=Say|first=Jean-Baptiste|publisher=Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger|year=1880|location=Philadelphia|pages=329}}</ref>}}

== Personal life ==
In 1793, Say married Mlle Deloche, daughter of a former lawyer.

== Honours ==
In 1826, Say was elected a foreign member of the [[Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]].

== Later years and death ==
[[File:Père-Lachaise - Division 39 - Say 01.jpg|thumb|Say's tomb in the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]] in Paris]]
In his later years, Say became subject to attacks of nervous [[apoplexy]]. He lost his wife in January 1830 and from that time his health declined. When the [[July Revolution|revolution of that year]] broke out, Say was named a member of the council-general of the department of the [[Seine]], but he found it necessary to resign.{{sfn|Ingram|1911|p=274}}

Say died in Paris on 15 November 1832 and was buried in the [[Père Lachaise Cemetery]].

== References ==
{{reflist}}
'''Attribution:'''
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Say, Jean Baptiste|volume=24|pages=274–275|first=John Kells|last=Ingram|author-link=John Kells Ingram}} THe second part of this article is Ingram's appreciation of Say's work.

== Further reading ==
* {{cite encyclopedia|last=Hart|first=David|editor-first=Ronald|editor-last=Hamowy|editor-link=Ronald Hamowy|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC|year=2008|publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|Sage]]; [[Cato Institute]]|location=Thousand Oaks, CA|doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n274|isbn=978-1412965804|oclc=750831024|lccn=2008009151|pages=449–450|chapter=Say, Jean-Baptiste (1767–1832)|url-access=subscription}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |title=Jean-Baptiste Say (1767–1832) |url=https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/bios/Say.html |encyclopedia=[[The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics]] |edition=2nd |series=[[Library of Economics and Liberty]] |publisher=[[Liberty Fund]] |year=2008|isbn=978-0865976665 |editor-first=David R.|editor-last=Henderson |editor-link=David R. Henderson |page=584 }}
* {{citation|author-link=Samuel Hollander|first=Samuel|last=Hollander|title=Jean-Baptiste Say and the Classical Canon in Economics: the British Connection in French Classicism|location=London and New York|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=041532338X}}.
* Garello, Jacques Garello (29 January 2011). [http://www.libres.org/portraits/509-jean-baptiste-say-1767-1832.html "Portrait: J.B. Say (1767–1832)"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200824221550/http://www.libres.org/portraits/509-jean-baptiste-say-1767-1832.html |date=24 August 2020 }}. ''La nouvelle lettre''. 1064: 8.
* {{cite book|first=Evert|last=Schoorl|title=Jean-Baptiste Say: Revolutionary, Entrepreneur, Economist|place=London|publisher=London|year=2012|isbn=978-1135104108|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XS2x66XO4eoC}}
* {{citation|author-link=Thomas Sowell|first=Thomas|last=Sowell|title=Say's Law: An Historical Analysis|publisher=Princeton University Press|year=1973|isbn=0691041660}}.
* {{cite book|first=Ernest|last=Teilhac|title=L'oeuvre économique de Jean-Baptiste Say|place=Paris|year=1927}}
* {{citation|first=Richard|last=Whatmore|author-link=Richard Whatmore|title=Republicanism and the French Revolution: An Intellectual History of Jean-Baptiste Say's Political Economy|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=0199241155}}.

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Internet Archive author|sname=Jean-Baptiste Say}}
* [http://www.benbest.com/polecon/sayslaw.html Say's Law and Economic Growth]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060712043848/http://www.dallasfed.org/research/ei/ei0601.html Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas ''Economic Insights'' article (Volume 11, Number 1)]
* [http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/say/treatise.pdf ''A Treatise on Political Economy''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601102001/http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/say/treatise.pdf |date=1 June 2011 }} at McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought
* [http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/say/letter.html ''Letters to Malthus on Several Subjects of Political Economy'' (1821)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100127022253/http://socserv2.socsci.mcmaster.ca/~econ/ugcm/3ll3/say/letter.html |date=27 January 2010 }} at McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought
* [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.SAYJB Guide to the Jean Baptiste Say Collection 1794–1821] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Say, Jean-Baptiste}}
[[Category:1767 births]]
[[Category:1832 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century French economists]]
[[Category:19th-century French male writers]]
[[Category:Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery]]
[[Category:Businesspeople from Lyon]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Collège de France]]
[[Category:French classical liberal economists]]
[[Category:19th-century French politicians]]
[[Category:French Protestants]]
[[Category:French male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Conservatoire national des arts et métiers alumni]]
[[Category:Utilitarians]]