Le cercle de Vincent de Gournay

Abstract

This collective work on the circle of authors and administrators surrounding the intendant of commerce Jacques-Claude-Marie Vincent de Gournay (1712-1759), brings together eleven original contributions by leading French and foreign scholars. By soliciting the viewpoints of demographers, economists, historians, linguists, philosophers and sociologists, the editors of this book aim to shed light on the varied dimensions of "Gournay's circle". Like the works of the intendant of commerce himself, Gournay's circle provides insight into the history of theories and doctrines, but equally into the history of government practices. Moreover, the works of Gournay's circle focus not only economic questions, but cover a broad spectrum of social sciences and humanities, ranging from moral philosophy to history and even sociology. In a word, this book aims to show that, like the Physiocratic and Encylopedist movements, Gournay's circle represents an important landmark in the history of society and of ideas in the French Enlightenment.
The volume is in three parts: "Cultural history, intellectual history", "Language and learning" and "Philosophy, politics and history of trade". It concludes with a number of unpublished documents, an analytical inventory of Vincent de Gournay's manuscripts conserved at the Saint-Brieuc municipal library, as well as three texts by Gournay never previously published in full.