Traité d'économie politique, ou simple exposition de la manière dont se forment, se distribuent et se consomment les richesses, séconde édition entièrement refondue et augmentée d'un épitome des principes fondamentaux de l'économie politique.

Paris, Antoine-Augustin Renouard, 1814. 2 volumes. lxxviii, 438 pp.; (4), 483, (1) pp. 8vo. Contemporary half calf, spine with raised bands and gilt lettering, marbled boards, gilt stamped crown with gilt monogram "AC" in lower compartment of spines. Kress 6387; Goldsmiths 20891; Teilhac 376; Einaudi 5119; Carpenter XXXIII (6); Schumpeter pp. 492-3; Palgrave, iii, 357. Second edition, the first being suppressed by Napoleon, there could be no re-issue until 1814. Jean-Baptiste Say is primarily remembered for Say's Law: 'that supply creates its own demand'. The Traité went beyond Smith in developing what Say called 'one of the most important thruths of political economy' - that supply creates its own demand, the doctrine ultimately names Say's Law, one of the cornerstones of classical economics. Say also was an early proponent of the utility theory of value, and was therefore much at odds with his classical contemporaries, to whom labour was the source of value (New Palgrave, iv, p. 249). Say ranks with Sismondi and Cournot in originality concerning his contributions to economic theory and Schumpeter has called this work 'the most important of the links in the chain that leads from Cantillon and Turgot to Walras.'Say never resolved his differences with Ricardo as to whether value was based on labour or utility, but in attempt to clarify his position in 1822, Say spoke of 'the quantity of useful things' as being crucial. In his correspondance with Sismondi and Malthus, he came finally to reconcile Say's Law with their theories of aggregate disequilibrium. Say was a policy-orientated economist rather than a model builder like Ricardo. In his introduction to the new restrictions added to his chapter on the law of the markets, Say remarked: 'Now, we are studying practical political economy here.' To Malthus he wrote: 'It is better to stick to facts and their consequences than to syllogisms'' (New Palgrave, iv, 249).