"Un impérialiste libéral"? Jean-Baptiste Say on colonies and the extra-European world

French Historical Studies

Volumn 32, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 223-250

  Plassart, Anna ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE   (United Kingdom)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 77950884570     PISSN: 00161071     EISSN: 15275493     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/00161071-2008-018     Document Type: Review

References (99)

1. The historiographical debate on the "imperialism of free trade" was triggered by John Gallagher and Ronald Robinson, "The Imperialism of Free Trade," Economic History Review 1 (1953): 1-15
2. This shift was already underlined in Duncan Forbes, "James Mill and India," Cambridge Journal 31 (1951-52): 19-33
3. Jennifer Pitts, A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France (Princeton, NJ, 2005)
4. Pitts, Turn to Empire, 8
5. Say's disciple Adolphe Jérôme Blanqui thus writes that "J. B. Say was more influential than any other writer in popularizing political economy in France and in Europe" (Histoire de l'économie politique en Europe: Depuis les anciens jusqu'à nos jours [Paris, 1837], 234). All translations are my own
6. For a discussion of the boundaries between Europe and the extra-European world, see J. G. A. Pocock, "Some Europes in Their History," in The Idea of Europe: From Antiquity to the European Union, ed. Anthony Pagden (Cambridge, 2002), 55-71. In the eighteenth century Europe could designate either the western European countries or, in a broader sense, all Christian countries
7. See Philippe Steiner, "Jean-Baptiste Say et les colonies, ou comment se débarrasser d'un héritage intempestif," Cahiers d'économie politique 27-28 (1996): 153-73
8. and Bernard Gainot, "La décade et la 'colonisation nouvelle,'" Annales historiques de la Révolution française, no. 339 (2005): 99-116
9. See, e.g., Mark Blaug's introduction to the Jean-Baptiste Say volume of Elgar's Pioneers in Economics series: "His importance, particularly for French economics, was to popularize the ideas of Adam Smith [and] to disseminate English classical political economy on the Continent" ( Jean-Baptiste Say [1776-1832] [Aldershot, 1991], ix)
10. Thus Jean Meyer and Jacques Thobie, in their Histoire de la France coloniale, write that in the 1870s "most economists claiming to be following the tradition of A. Smith, through J.-B. Say and F. Bastiat . . . condemn colonialism" and that in the 1880s "both left-wing and right-wing anticolonialists repeat the old liberal arguments passed on by J.-B. Say" (Histoire de la France coloniale [Paris, 1990], 560, 613)
11. Blanqui wrote that "[Say]'s immortal fame was ensured by his Law, which dealt the last blow to the system of monopolies and precipitated the collapse of the colonial system" (Histoire de l'économie politique en Europe, 227-28)
12. In their history of French anticolonialism, Jean Lacouture and Dominique Chagnollaud argue that "more interesting than [humanist anticolonialism] is the anticolonialism of the Right, embodied by Jean-Baptiste Say, for instance: colonies were a bad deal (we will see that Raymond Aron was close to this position)"; they equally argue that in the 1950s Raymond Aron "in his criticism of colonization . . . was taking up the heritage of the liberal school, whose masters were Jean-Baptiste Say, Frédéric Bastiat, and Frédéric Passy" (Le désempire: Figures et thèmes de l'anticolonialisme [Paris, 1993], 218, 185)
13. Richard Whatmore has recently offered a new interpretation of Say's economic writings in light of his lifelong commitment to modern republicanism (Republicanism and the French Revolution: An Intellectual History of Jean-Baptiste Say's Political Economy [Oxford, 2000])
14. In particular, his Essai historique sur l'origine, les progrès et les résultats probables de la souveraineté des Anglais aux Indes (Paris, 1824) offers a moral and political argument for British rule in India very similar to James Mill's. This text has remained unnoticed by most scholars; I am grateful to Gareth Stedman Jones for pointing it out to me
15. In a short article published in 1969, Joseph J. Spengler draws attention to Say's Essai historique, but he is more interested in Say's "prophetic" abilities than in the coherence of his colonial thought ("India's Prospects according to Jean-Baptiste Say, 1824," Journal of Asian Studies 3 [1969]: 595-600)
16. Blanqui, Histoire de l'économie politique en Europe, 232-38
17. Several anecdotes from Say's time in England reappear in his economic writings throughout the years. See Evelyn L . Forget, The Social Economics of Jean-Baptiste Say: Markets and Virtue (London, 1999), 13
18. "[Clavière] had a copy of Smith, which he often studied. I read a few pages that deeply impressed me, and as soon as I could I ordered a copy, which I still have" ( Jean-Baptiste Say to Louis Say, 1827, in Oeuvres diverses de J.-B. Say, ed. Charles Comte, Eugène Daire, and Horace Say [Osnabrück, 1966], 545)
19. In 1802 Dumont sent to Say the first volume of his translation of Bentham's work. Philippe Steiner, "La science de l'économie politique et les sciences sociales en France (1750-1840)," Revue d'histoire des sciences humaines 15 (2006): 32
20. Say writes, for instance, that Diderot was "le disciple et l'émule de Bacon" and put forward John Locke as one of the "grands maîtres" (Jean-Baptiste Say, "Oeuvres de Diderot," Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique, pluviôse an VI [1798], 338
21. see also Say, Olbie, ou essai sur les moyens de réformer les moeurs d'une nation [Paris, 1800], 7)
22. Jean-Baptiste Say, Traité d'économie politique, ou simple exposition de la manière dont se forment . . . les richesses (Paris, 1803), xx
23. Say met Ricardo, Malthus, Mill, Bentham, and Francis Place in 1814, when he was sent to England by the Restoration government to report on the state of industrialization of the country. In the case of Mill, the acquaintance seems to have developed into friendship, as Say famously welcomed the young John Stuart Mill into his own family in 1821 and, on a visit to London in 1825, was invited by James Mill to spend two days with him at Croydon (Mill to Say, May 28, 1825, in A. Heertje, "Two Letters from James Mill to Jean-Baptiste Say," De Economist 118 [1970]: 435-39). Say remained in London from May 25 until Aug. 16, 1825
24. Say had been introduced to the Wealth of Nations by Clavière in the 1780s
25. The Encyclopédie illustrates the development of these anticolonialist arguments. See Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond D'Alembert, eds., Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, ed. Robert Morrissey (Chicago: University of Chicago, ARTFL Project, Winter 2008), encyclopedie.uchicago.edu
26. While the article "Colonies," by Véron de Forbonnais, supports slavery and colonialism, Damilaville's article "Population" contains both a utilitarian and a moral condemnation of all colonies. For a study of Enlightenment anticolonialism, see Sankar Muthu, Enlightenment against Empire (Princeton, NJ, 2003)
27. For a precise typology that ranges from ancient to modern times, see M. I. Finley, "Colonies: An Attempt at a Typology," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th ser., 26 (1976): 167-88
28. For a presentation of Smith's colonial thought, see Donald Winch, Classical Political Economy and Colonies (Cambridge, MA, 1965), 6-19
29. Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (Oxford, 1976), 595
30. These losses were the consequence of the rise in prices entailed by the rise in profits from colonial trade (because of the exclusion of foreign competition); the rise of profits subjected the country "both to an absolute and to a relative disadvantage in every branch of trade of which she has not the monopoly" (Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (ibid., 599)
31. That Say was particularly interested by Smith's treatment of the colonies is demonstrated by his handwritten notes on his copy of the Wealth of Nations. See H. Hashimoto, "Notes inédites de J.-B. Say qui couvrent les marges de la 'Richesse des Nations' et qui la critiquent," KSU Economic and Business Review 7 (1980): 76-78
32. For a more developed analysis of Say's calculation, see Steiner, "Jean-Baptiste Say et les colonies," 159-61
33. In the 1803 edition Say did not yet spell out the colonial implication of his short chapter "Des débouchés." Yet this chapter contained the roots of his "law of markets," later used by Mill and Ricardo against Smith's argument concerning the function of colonies as outlets
34. Say does not believe that abolishing slavery would put an end to the planters' difficulties: "Freeing one's slaves can sometimes improve productivity, but [in the West Indies] the effect would probably be different. . . . In that climate, working in the sun is extremely difficult. . . . The Negroes would never do it voluntarily" (Cours complet d'économie politique pratique [Osnabrück, 1852], 252)
35. "Each country, each province . . . has advantages and disadvantages, which derive from the nature of things, from their situation, their climate, the spirit of the inhabitants, their capitals. . . . Those advantages increase through the progress of industry . . . , but they cannot increase through the action of the government" (Cours complet d'économie politique pratique ibid., 624)
36. James Mill offers the same argument ("Emancipation of South America," Edinburgh Review 26 [1809]: 280)
37. Say, Cours complet, 633
38. Say, Traité d'économie politique (1803), 232-33
39. The figures were mainly taken from Patrick Colquhoun, On the Wealth of the British Empire (London, 1814)
40. Mathematically, Britain can gain profit from India either from tax or from commerce. The company's spending in India (on general administration, defense, debt interest) exceeds what it receives from the various Indian governments by more than £19 million. Commercial profits did not exceed £720,000 between 1807 and 1810, which Say asserts were exceptionally good years. Say therefore concludes that overall the company is in a situation of deficit (De l'Angleterre et des Anglais, in Oeuvres diverses, 228-29)
41. James Mill, The History of British India, 6 vols. (London, 1826), 2:46
42. Jean-Baptiste Say, "Théâtre de la Cité - Le noir et le blanc," Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique, brumaire an IV [1795], 304
43. Say, "Théâtre du vaudeville - Honorine, ou la femme difficile à vivre," Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique, ventôse an III [1795], 428
44. Jean-Baptiste Say, "Voyages - Relations de l'ambassade du Lord Macartney à la Chine," Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique, brumaire an V [1796], 286
45. Say writes, for instance: "It is a powerful argument against the expansion of states that the more they expand, the more injustice pervades their administration" ("Nouvelle géographie universelle, descriptive, historique, industrielle et commerciale des quatre parties du monde, par William Guthrie," Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique, prairial an VII [1799], 527)
46. Say, "Voyages - Relations de l'ambassade du Lord Macartney à la Chine."
47. Say's article "De l'Egypte," written in praise of Napoléon's expedition, thus acknowledged Volney's book as its main source of information
48. It is likely that Say knew Volney or had at least heard of him before reading his Voyage, since Volney, like Say, moved in the social circles of the idéologues. Volney's writings, because they popularized the idea of the past grandeur and present decadence of Arab countries, are sometimes seen as offering an intellectual link between eighteenth-century fascination for orientalism and Napoléon's operation of conquest in Egypt. See, e.g., Yves Bénot, La démence coloniale sous Napoléon: Essai (Paris, 1992), 10, 19
49. "It is fascinating to think that this race of black men [the Copts], which we now despise and enslave, has given us our arts, our sciences, even the usage of speech; and to consider that it is those very people who claim to love liberty and humanity, who uphold barbarous slavery and wonder whether black men have an intelligence comparable to that of white men!" (Constantin-François De Chasseboeuf [Volney], Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte, pendant les années 1783, 1784 et 1785 [Paris, 1787], 76-77)
50. Constantin-François De Chasseboeuf Voyage en Syrie et en Egypte, pendant les années 1783, 1784 et 1785 [Ibid., 169
51. The quotation is found in Jean-Baptiste Say, "Suite de l'article intitulé 'De l'Egypte,'" Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique, vendémiaire an VII [1798], 156
52. In that sense the French moeurs was semantically close to the modern word culture. Muthu underlines that Enlightenment thinkers "[did not] believe that there are different cultures, that non-Europeans are members of distinct cultures, and that such cultures are of worth equal to that of all other cultures," yet he consistently discusses those thinkers' views of extra-European worlds in terms of "culture," which can be misleading, since their own understanding of the word was different (Enlightenment against Empire, 7-8)
53. Say quotes the Histoire philosophique (to which Diderot contributed an estimated seven hundred pages in the 1780 edition), for instance in Traité d'économie politique (1803), 205
54. For the Scottish historians' views, see H. M. Hopfl, "From Savage to Scotsmen: Conjectural History in the Scottish Enlightenment," Journal of British Studies 2 (1978): 27. Say quotes Stewart in the Cours complet (2) and took advantage of his 1814 stay in England to visit him in Scotland
55. Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau all think of "savages" in terms of a "condition of nature."
56. Jean-Baptiste Say, "Politique pratique," in Oeuvres morales et politiques, ed. Emmanuel Blanc and André Tiran (Paris, 2003), 322
57. Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot and Gustav Schelle, Oeuvres de Turgot et documents le concernant: Avec biographie et notes (Paris, 1913), 216-17
58. See Bénot, Démence, 68. See also the following development on the particular status of Saint-Domingue as a black colony of settlement
59. Jean-Antoine Chaptal, De l'industrie française (Paris, 1819), 93-94, esp. 107-8
60. See Lawrence C. Jennings, "La lente renaissance du mouvement abolitionniste en France," in Rétablissement de l'esclavage dans les colonies françaises, 1802, ed. Yves Bénot and Marcel Dorigny (Paris, 2003), 365
61. Say, Traité d'économie politique (Ibid., 224
62. "Not only do we want to know the price of a man's labor, but we also want to know whether justice and humanity have been hurt in the process"; "stealing and keeping men, and basing one's profit on their sufferings, is such a shameful thing that no one would dare to defend this awful traffic, for fear of being thought its accomplice" ( Jean-Baptiste Say, Traité d'économie politique [Osnabrück, 1841], 229, 230)
63. "Everything is changed now . . . the fact is that Martinique and Guadeloupe can no longer bear the concurrency of several other countries, which supply Europe with cheaper sugar" ( Jean-Baptiste Say, Traité d'économie politique [1826] [Paris, 1972], 225)
64. In his Traité de législation, 4 vols. (Paris, 1826-27), which was heavily quoted by Say, Comte had argued that the expenses needed to watch and punish slaves, as well as the expenses occasioned by domestic slaves, had been severely underestimated
65. See Jennifer Pitts's reassessment of Bentham's colonial thought in "Legislator of the World? A Rereading of Bentham on Colonies," Political Theory 2 (2003): 200-234
66. Smith, Wealth of Nations, 616-22
67. See Jeremy Bentham, Emancipate Your Colonies! in Rights, Representation, and Reform: Nonsense upon Stilts and Other Writings on the French Revolution, ed. Philip Schofield, Catherine Pease-Watkin, and Cyprian Blamires (Oxford, 2002), 312
68. See also Rid Yourselves of Ultramaria, in Colonies, Commerce, and Constitutional Law: Rid Yourselves of Ultramaria, and Other Writings on Spain and Spanish America, ed. Philip Schofield (Oxford, 1995), which was in fact organized as a list of the practical evils engendered by Ultramaria. Part 1, for instance, lists "injuries to Spain," with headings such as "profit none," "corruptive influence increased," "bad deputies longer irremovable," "Cortes' time wasted," "despotism secretly planted," and "defensive power weakened."
69. Emancipate Your Colonies! 292
70. "Every European that can should now fly to the United America. You will have seen Birbeck's little book. It makes a prodigious sensation here. . . . Your works here are held in merited estimation. Write, work, go on, and prosper" (Bentham to Say, Apr. 11, 1818, in Jeremy Bentham, Correspondence, 12 vols. [Oxford, 1988-2006], 9:190)
71. Morris Birbeck was an English-born American pioneer, whose two books (Notes on a Journey in America [1817]
72. and Letters from Illinois [1818]) recommended the settlement of American lands by English immigrants
73. "This day sennight dined with me for the first time our friend from Buenos ayres [Rivadavia]: we talked much of you. I am sadly alarmed for that country: a letter from thence from Place's son in law of the 23d March represents the capital as being even then in expectation of the Cadiz expedition, with not more than a thousand men capable of bearing arms: but our friend says there are enough at a little distance" (Bentham to Say, July 28, 1819, in Correspondence, 9:340)
74. Bentham to Samuel Bentham, Mar. 28-30, 1821, in Correspondence, 10:319
75. Bentham to José del Valle, Mar. 19, 1827, in Correspondence, 12:328-29. Del Valle was a leader of Central American independence; in 1823 he was elected first president of the United Provinces of Central America
76. James Silk Buckingham was a fierce critic of the East India Company and a campaigner for colonial self-government. His views were expressed in his travel books, notably Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia (1829)
77. as well as in several journals he had established, such as the Oriental Herald and Colonial Review (1824-29)
78. The books, A Letter to Sir Charles Forbes, A Second Letter to Sir Charles Forbes, and Gavin Young, An Inquiry into the Expediency of Applying the Principles of Colonial Policy to the Government of India
79. were eventually reviewed by Jean-Charles-Léonard Simonde de Sismondi in the Revue encyclopédique in Dec. 1824
80. Like Say, James Mill believed that colonies, including India, were a commercial liability for the mother country. Yet he asserted that the British had a moral duty to stay in India and improve Indian society. Say cites Mill in the Essai (see, e.g., Cours complet, 653)
81. For instance, in the Encyclopédie the moral argument put forward by Damilaville's article "Population" explicitly concerns the settling of both inhabited and uninhabited land. Although the same sort of moral argument is found in the third edition of Raynal's Histoire des deux Indes (1780), esp. bk. 8, chap. 1, Diderot makes it clear that he allows only for uninhabited land to be colonized
82. That was also true of English-speaking writers. In her study on the "rise of imperial liberalism," Pitts uses the term colony in the modern, looser sense of "territory ruled by a European country" (Turn to Empire, 9-11). Although she occasionally distinguishes "settlement" and "non-settlement" colonies, her overall usage of the word is not the same as that of the eighteenth-century thinkers she is studying, which sometimes creates much ambiguity
83. Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot and Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, Oeuvres de Mr. Turgot, ministre d'Etat: Précédées et accompagnées de mémoires et de notes sur sa vie, son administration et ses ouvrages (Paris, 1808), 66
84. Some eighteenth-century authors had, however, prophesized the independence of black countries in the West Indies (in particular following the insurrections in the first half of the century). Thus Louis-Sébastien Mercier in L'an 2440: Rêve s'il en fut jamais (Paris, 1770) predicts slave revolts that will bring black independence in the New World
85. Guillaume-Thomas Raynal, Histoire philosophique et politique des établissemens et du commerce des Européens dans les deux Indes (La Haye, 1776), 233
86. The Traité is equally clear that a colony is defined by its non-native population: "A nation usually founds colonies when its numerous population finds itself constrained in its old territory, and when persecution drives away some particular groups" (Say, Traité d'économie politique [1841], 223)
87. Say's reaction to the 1791 insurrection in Saint-Domingue is not known; however, an indication of his likely response can be found in that of his mentor and employer Clavière, the president of the first Société des Amis des Noirs. In 1791 Clavière noted in an address to the Société des Amis des Noirs that the blacks "hear the speeches of the whites, judge them, and see that the only difference is that of their skin color" (quoted in Yves Bénot, La Révolution française et la fin des colonies [Paris, 1987], 140)
88. The French abolitionists did not always look favorably on the insurrection, as they worried about its repercussions on the first Société (accused of being responsible for the violence against white people and mulattoes) and on the French Revolution (the colonists appealed to the king for protection). See Yves Bénot, La Révolution française et la fin des colonies [ibid., 141-42
89. Say to Place, June 1818, in The Francis Place Papers from the British Library, London, ed. Thomas Mavis (Brighton, 1978), microfilm reel 51, Add. MS 35152
90. Raynal's Histoire des deux Indes exemplifies this ambivalence, as it contains both opinions
91. An Essay on Colonization, Particularly Applied to the Western Coast of Africa, with Some Free Thoughts on Cultivation and Commerce (London, 1794-95) was an abolitionist pamphlet. Along with a moral indictment of slavery, it argued that European countries would financially benefit from treating the Africans as trading partners and paid workers rather than as slaves. The essay made Wadström a central figure of abolitionism in Britain
92. The close links between the Décade and the Société are illustrated by the issue published on Wadström's death: the obituary was written by Hélène-Maria Williams (a member of the Société), in the form of a letter directly addressed to the Décade's editor, Say - who had himself translated several of Williams's books. See Hélène-Maria Williams, "Lettre de la citoyenne Hélène-Maria Williams, au C. J.-B. Say, sur la mort du philantrope [sic] Wadström," Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique, floréal an VII [1799]. Williams's Parisian salon was a meeting point for the French abolitionists
93. "Lettre de la Société des Amis des Noirs aux auteurs de la Décade philosophique," Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique, floréal an VI [1798], 262
94. At Napoléon's request, Say prepared a portable library for the former to take along with him to North Africa. Say knew Napoléon through his brother, Louis Say. The pleasure that the library afforded Napoléon later helped Say's career at the Tribunat. See Joseph Valynseele, Les Say et leurs alliances: L'étonnante aventure d'une famille cévenole (Paris, 1971), 41
95. Say, "Suite de l'article intitulé 'De l'Egypte,'" 167
96. Indeed, Say warmly welcomed, both in Olbie and in the Décade, the election of Napoléon and Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès as consuls: "Two men, whose eminent talents and morality are uncontested, . . . have conceived the project of founding the stability of the Republic on the observation of the rules of morality" (Olbie, x)
97. Say, De l'Angleterre et des Anglais, 230
98. The chronology is suggestive: Mill's History of British India was published in 1817, and the aforementioned footnote appears in 1819, before it is developed into a fuller statement in the 1826 edition of the Traité
99. Mill and Say were friends, and Say is known to have been aware of Mill's efforts to finish History of British India. That he most likely read it as soon as it was published is suggested by a Dec. 1817 letter from Ricardo, which praises and recommends the book (The Works and Correspondence of David Ricardo, ed. Piero Sraffa, vol. 7 [London, 1951], 230-31)