Charles Ganilh (6 January 1758 – 1836) was a French

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and politician. Ganilh was born at Allanche in

Cantal Cantal (; or ) is a rural Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region of France, with its Prefectures in France, prefecture in Aurillac. Its other principal towns are Saint-Flour, Cantal, Saint-Flou ...

. He was educated for a profession in law and practised as ''avocat''. During the troubled period which culminated in the

storming of the Bastille The Storming of the Bastille ( ), which occurred in Paris, France, on 14 July 1789, was an act of political violence by revolutionary insurgents who attempted to storm and seize control of the medieval armoury, fortress, and political prison k ...

on 14 July 1789, he became prominent in public affairs and was one of the seven members of the permanent

Committee of Public Safety The Committee of Public Safety () was a committee of the National Convention which formed the provisional government and war cabinet during the Reign of Terror, a violent phase of the French Revolution. Supplementing the Committee of General D ...

. Ganilh was imprisoned during the

Reign of Terror The Reign of Terror (French: ''La Terreur'', literally "The Terror") was a period of the French Revolution when, following the creation of the French First Republic, First Republic, a series of massacres and Capital punishment in France, nu ...

and was only released by the counter-revolution of the 9th Thermidor. During the first consulate he was called to the

tribunate Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs acted as a check on the ...

but was excluded in 1802. In 1815 he was elected deputy for Cantal and finally left the Chamber on its dissolution in 1823. Ganilh is best known as the most vigorous defender of the mercantile school in opposition to the views of

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptised 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the field of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as the "father of economics"——— or ...

and the English economists. The

mercantilists Mercantilism is a nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports of an economy. It seeks to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and use those resources for one-sided trade. ...

were believers in nations keeping a positive balance of trade at all times in order to prosper, economically. However, they also valued the maximization of the national domestic resources of that nation and a total ban on the export of gold and silver. In pursuit of the positive balance of trade they recommended expansion of the colonial system, exclusivity of trade with the colonies and forbidding trade carried in foreign ships. Britain attempted to follow the mercantilists' suggestions and found themselves involved in frequent trade wars like the four Anglo-Dutch Navigation Wars. On the scale of the individual sale, the mercantilists believed that profit arose only during the sale of commodities by the seller over-charging the buyer. Thus, Ganilh says that "exchange or trade alone gives value to things." In his mercantile outlook, Ganilh rejected the general labor theory of Adam Smith and

David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist, politician, and member of Parliament. He is recognized as one of the most influential classical economists, alongside figures such as Thomas Malthus, Ada ...

in which commodities have value from the beginning. Commodities obtain value only through the labor that is used to prepare the commodity for market.Karl Marx, "Theories of Surplus Value" contained in the ''Collected Works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Volume 31'', p. 99. His works on

political economy Political or comparative economy is a branch of political science and economics studying economic systems (e.g. Marketplace, markets and national economies) and their governance by political systems (e.g. law, institutions, and government). Wi ...

include ''Essai politique sur le revenue des peuples de l'antiquité, du moyen âge, &c.'' (1808), ''Des systèmes d'économie politique'' (1809), ''Théorie d'économie politique'' (1815), and ''Dictionnaire analytique d'économie politique'' (1826).

Notes

French economists 19th-century French politicians 1758 births 1836 deaths {{France-economist-stub