Émile Louis Victor de Laveleye (5 April 1822 – 3 January 1892) was a Belgian economist.[1][2][3] He was one of the co-founders of the Institut de Droit International in 1873.

Émile de Laveleye
Born
Émile Louis Victor de Laveleye

(1822-04-05)5 April 1822
Died3 January 1892(1892-01-03) (aged 69)
EducationKatholieke Universiteit Leuven
Occupation(s)Professor, historian, economist
Children

Biography

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De Lavaleye was born in Bruges, and educated there and at the Collège Stanislas in Paris, a celebrated establishment in the hands of the Oratorians.[4]

He continued his studies at the Catholic University of Louvain and afterwards at Ghent, where he came under the influence of François Huet [nl] the philosopher and Christian Socialist. In 1844 he won a prize with an essay on the language and literature of Provence. In 1847, he published L'Histoire des rois francs, and in 1861 a French version of the Nibelungenlied, but though he never lost his interest in literature and history, his most important work was in the domain of economics.[4]

He was one of a group of young lawyers doctors and critics, all old pupils of Huet, who met once a week to discuss social and economic questions and thus was led to publish his views on these subjects. In 1859 some articles by him in the Revue des deux mondes laid the foundation of his reputation as an economist. In 1864 he was elected to the chair of political economy at the state University of Liège. Here he wrote his most important works:[4]

  • La Russie et l'Autriche depuis Sadowa, 1870.
  • Essai sur les Formes de Gouvernement dans les Sociétés Modernes, 1872.
  • Des Causes Actuelles de Guerre en Europe et de l'Arbitrage, 1874.
  • De la Proprieté et de ses Formes Primitives, 1874 (dedicated to the memories of John Stuart Mill and François Huet)

Death and legacy

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He died at the Doyon Castle (in present-day Havelange), near Liège on 3 January 1892.[4]

Laveleye's activity included the whole realm of political science, political economy, monetary questions, international law, foreign and Belgian politics, questions of education, religion and morality, travel and literature. He had the art of popularizing even the most technical subjects, owing to the clearness of his view and his firm grasp of the matter in hand. He was especially attracted to England, where he thought he saw many of his ideals of social, political and religious progress realized. He was a frequent contributor to the English newspapers and leading reviews. The most widely circulated of his works was a pamphlet on Le Parti clérical en Belgique, of which 2,000,000 copies had been circulated in ten languages by the beginning of the 20th century.[4]

Works in English translation

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  • On the Causes of War, and the Means of Reducing Their Number. London: Peace Society. 1872. p. 1. Retrieved 24 September 2018 – via Internet Archive.
  • Protestantism and Catholicism in their Bearing upon the Liberty and Prosperity of Nations. Toronto: Belford Bros., 1876.
  • Primitive Property; With an Introduction by T. E. Cliffe Leslie. Translated by Marriott, G . R. L. London: Macmillan and Co. 1878. Retrieved 24 September 2018 – via Internet Archive.
  • The New Tendencies of Political Economy. New York: The Banker's Magazine and Statistical Register, 1879.
  • International Bimetallism and the Battle of the Standard. London: P.S. King, 1881.
  • Common-place Fallacies Concerning Money. London: P.S. King. 1882. Retrieved 3 April 2019 – via Internet Archive.
  • Regulated Vice in Relation to Morality. London: K. Paul, Trench, 1884.
  • The Elements of Political Economy. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1886.
  • Letters from Italy. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1886.
  • The Socialism of Today. London: Field and Tuer, 1886.
  • The Balkan Peninsula; Edited and Revised for the English Public by the Author; With an Introductory Chapter Upon the Most Recent Events and a Letter from the Right Honourable W. P. Gladstone M.P. Translated by Mrs. Thorpe. London: T. Fisher Unwin. 1887.
  • Luxury. London: George Allen & Company, 1920.

Selected articles

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Émile Louis Victor de Laveleye Street in Sofia, Bulgaria (42°41.700′N 23°19.148′E / 42.695000°N 23.319133°E / 42.695000; 23.319133)

Notes

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  1. ^ Blaug, Mark, ed. (1986). "LAVELEYE, Émile Louis Victor de". Who's Who in Economics: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Economists 1700-1986 (2nd ed.). Wheatsheaf Books Limited. p. 499 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ^ Mahaim, Ernest (1892). "Émile de LAVELEYE". Revue d'économie politique (in French). 6 (1): 93–101. JSTOR 24676279.
  3. ^ Mahaim, Ernest (1892). "Émile de LAVELEYE". The Economic Journal. 2 (5): 193–196. JSTOR 2955966.
  4. ^ a b c d e   One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainChisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Laveleye, Émile Louis Victor de". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 16 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 291–292.
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