Jean-Baptiste SAY (1767–1832). 2 letters, Paris, April–Octob - Lot 110

Jean-Baptiste SAY (1767–1832). 2 letters, Paris, April–October 1821, to Louis-François Benoiston de Châteauneuf; 1½ pages and 2¼ pages, in-8 format, with an address. April 21. He proposes to exchange his Letters to Malthus “for a copy of the second edition of your Recherches sur les consommations de Paris […] so that I may share it with my friends in Edinburgh.” You will note that my aim in the Letters to Malthus was to disseminate certain fundamental principles that are only briefly touched upon in my Treatise on Political Economy and that are elaborated upon at length in the public lecture series I give at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers every Saturday.” He asks for the name of the bookseller “who reprinted Lavoisier’s work in 1819.” October 8. He received the four copies of his *Industrial Consumption* from Paris: “We lament with you the lack of foundational data, and the more one studies the subject, the more one realizes that the information is rendered incomplete by self-interest. It is not only the actions of the tax authorities and the government that industrious people fear: it is their competitors. Therefore, I am convinced that almost all the figures fall short of the truth. There are, within the social machinery, a multitude of activities and forms of consumption that producers and consumers are careful not to bring to your attention.” He congratulates him “for having identified the areas where efforts should be directed. Yours seem to me to be highly commendable; I will make use of them in my lectures when the development of my subject requires it; and I would be pleased to be indebted to you in this way.” In a postscript, he announces the upcoming publication of a “completely revised Catechism of Economics.”