Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I WALRAS'S BIOGRAPHY
- PART II THE GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF WALRAS'S IDEAS
- 3 A. N. Isnard, progenitor of the Walrasian general equilibrium model (1969)
- 4 The birth of Léon Walras's Eléments (1977)
- 5 A centenarian on a bicentenarian: Léon Walras's Eléments on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1977)
- 6 Léon Walras and his relations with American economists (1960)
- PART III THE SCOPE OF WALRAS'S WORK
- PART IV SPECIAL TOPICS IN WALRAS'S ECONOMICS
- PART V WALRAS'S PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
- Index
3 - A. N. Isnard, progenitor of the Walrasian general equilibrium model (1969)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I WALRAS'S BIOGRAPHY
- PART II THE GENESIS AND DEVELOPMENT OF WALRAS'S IDEAS
- 3 A. N. Isnard, progenitor of the Walrasian general equilibrium model (1969)
- 4 The birth of Léon Walras's Eléments (1977)
- 5 A centenarian on a bicentenarian: Léon Walras's Eléments on Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1977)
- 6 Léon Walras and his relations with American economists (1960)
- PART III THE SCOPE OF WALRAS'S WORK
- PART IV SPECIAL TOPICS IN WALRAS'S ECONOMICS
- PART V WALRAS'S PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT
- Index
Summary
To the best of my knowledge, the first allusion to Achylle-Nicolas Isnard (1749–1803) as a precursor of Léon Walras (1834–1910) is found in a little-known French doctoral thesis published in Poitiers in 1909, Les théories économiques d'Achylle-Nicolas Isnard by Louis Renevier. Renevier wrote the thesis under the direction of Professor Auguste Dubois, a competent historian of economic doctrines, but not of mathematical economics. So far as one can see, Renevier's sole reason for linking Isnard's name with that of Walras was that both employed mathematics in their economic reasoning. By the same token, Renevier considered Isnard an “ancestor” not only of Léon Walras, but of Jevons as well! The thesis, however, passes very lightly over Isnard's contribution to mathematical economics, simply quoting a brief passage from Isnard's theory of exchange. The few deprecatory comments Renevier thought fit to add serve only to reveal his complete lack of comprehension of the passage quoted. This is not to say that Renevier's thesis is without value. It contains, besides the only published biography of Isnard, a reasonably good summary of the non-analytical side of his thought, which was cast in the mold of the Physiocratic philosophy, although Isnard vehemently rejected Quesnay's doctrine that the soil alone produces a produit net. It is surprising that Isnard's name is nowhere mentioned, unless I have overlooked it, in any work on Physiocracy, its opponents, or its dissidents.
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- Information
- William Jaffe's Essays on Walras , pp. 55 - 77Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1983