La formation de la pensée économique de Sieyès d'après ses manuscrits (1770-1789)

Abstract

A manuscript which was lost for a time, then found and which is now accessible makes it possible to throw new light on Sieyès' economic thought during the period of its development before the revolution. His thought takes on an importance hardly suspected until recently. We find that Sieyès knew a good deal about Adam Smith's thought with which he agrees on several points. He opposes physiocratic ideas and asserts that work alone creates value. This does not bring him to adopt a position of classic economic liberalism, but rather a determined vision of the state and of those who govern as the basic economic regulating device. The political ideas and the economics of the theorist take on real unity and continuity.