Background
SAY, Leon was born in 1826 in France.
SAY, Leon was born in 1826 in France.
Léon Say thus inherited zeal for economic studies, of which he gave proof by publishing at the age of twenty-two a brief "Histoire de la caisse descompte".
Leon Say was at first destined for the law, next entered a bank, and finally obtained a post in the administration of the Chemin de fer du Nord. Meanwhile he became a regular contributor to the Journal des débats, where he established his reputation by a series of brilliant attacks on the financial administration of the prefect of the Seine, Haussmann. He was one of the pioneers of the co-operative movement in France. Elected to the Assembly of 1871 by the departments of Seine and Seine-et-Oise, he adopted the former, and took his seat among the Moderate Liberals, to whose principles he adhered throughout his life. The fall of the empire, the siege of Paris, and the Commune had reduced the administration of the capital to chaos, and the task of reconstruction severely tried the new prefect's power of organization. This was, however, a gift with which he was pre-eminently endowed; and he only quit his post to assume, in December 1872, the ministry of finance—a remarkable tribute to his abilities from Thiers, who himself held strongly protectionist views. He fell from office with Thiers on May 24, 1873, and was elected president of the Left Centre group, as whose candidate he unsuccessfully contested the presidency of the Chamber with Buffet. In spite of their divergence of views, he consented, at the urgent request of President MacMahon, to take office in March 1875 in the Buffet Cabinet; but the reactionary policy of the premier led to a dispute between him and Say both in the press and in the constituencies, and brought about Buffet's resignation. Say continued to hold the ministry of finance under Dufaure and Jules Simon, and again in the Dufaure ministry of December 1877, and its successor, the Waddington ministry, till December 1879. On April 30, 1880 he accepted the post of ambassador in London for the purpose of negotiating a commercial treaty between France and England, but the presidency of the Senate falling vacant, he was elected to it on May 25. In January 1882 he became minister of finance in the Freycinet Cabinet.
Sociétés coopératives, 1866
Les finances de la France, 1882
Le socialisme d’État, 1884
Les Finances de la France sous la troisime république, 1898-1901
He was, indeed, the hereditary defender of free-trade principles in France.
He displayed talent for interesting popular audiences in economic questions. His sympathies, like those of his grandfather, were with the British school of economists; he was, indeed, the hereditary defender of free-trade principles in France. He had, moreover, an intimate acquaintance with the English language and institutions, and translated into French Goschen's Theory of Foreign Exchanges.