Pierre Paul Leroy-Beaulieu (; 9 December 1843 in

Saumur Saumur () is a Communes of France, commune in the Maine-et-Loire Departments of France, department in western France. The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgu ...

– 9 December 1916 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

) was a French economist, brother of Henri Jean Baptiste Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, born at

Maine-et-Loire Maine-et-Loire () is a department in the Loire Valley in the Pays de la Loire region in Western France. It is named after the two rivers, Maine and the Loire. It borders Mayenne and Sarthe to the north, Loire-Atlantique to the west, Indr ...

on 9 December 1843, and educated in

at the

Lycée Condorcet The Lycée Condorcet () is a secondary school in Paris, France, located at 8, rue du Havre, in the city's 9th arrondissement. Founded in 1803, it is one of the four oldest high schools in Paris and also one of the most prestigious. Since its inc ...

and the École de Droit. He afterwards studied at

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, and on his return to Paris began to write for ''

Le Temps ' (, ) is a Swiss French-language daily newspaper published in Berliner format in Geneva by Le Temps SA. The paper was launched in 1998, formed out of the merger of two other newspapers, and (the former being a merger of two other papers), ...

'', ''Revue nationale'' and ''Revue contemporaine''. In 1867, he won a prize offered by the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences with an essay entitled ''L'Influence de état moral et intellectuel des populations ouvrières sur le taux des salaires''. In 1870 he gained three prizes for essays on ''La Colonisation chez les peuples modernes, L'Administration en France et en Angleterre'', and ''L'Impôt foncier et ses conséquences économiques''. In 1872, Leroy-Beaulieu became professor of finance at the newly founded

École Libre des Sciences Politiques Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

, and in 1880 he succeeded his father-in-law,

Michel Chevalier Michel Chevalier (; 13 January 1806 – 18 November 1879) was a French engineer, statesman, economist and free market liberal. Biography Born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, Chevalier studied at the ''École Polytechnique'', obtaining an engineering ...

, in the chair of political economy in the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

. In his last years, he was co-president of the

Société d'économie politique The Société d’Economie Politique () is a French learned society concerned with political economy. It was founded in 1842 to provide a forum for discussion of free trade, a subject of violent debate at the time, and has continued to organize dis ...

from 1911 to 1916. Several of his works have made their mark beyond the borders of his own country. Among them may be mentioned his ''Recherches économiques, historiques et statistiques sur les guerres contemporaines'', a series of studies published between 1863 and 1869, in which he calculated the loss of men and capital caused by the great

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an conflicts. He also wrote ''La Question monnaie au dix-neuvieme siècle'' (1861), ''La Travail des femmes au dix-neuvième siècle'' (1873), ''Traité da la science des finances'' (1877), ''Essai sur la répartition des richesses'' (1882), ''Le collectivisme'' (1885), ''L'Algérie at la Tunisie'' (1888), ''Précis d'économie politique'' (1888), and ''L'Etat moderne et ses fonctions'' (1889). He also founded in 1873 the ''Économiste français'', on the model of ''L'Economiste belge'' by

Gustave de Molinari Gustave de Molinari (; 3 March 1819 – 28 January 1912) was a Belgian political economist and French Liberal School theorist associated with French ''laissez-faire'' economists such as Frédéric Bastiat and Hippolyte Castille. Biography Bo ...

. Leroy-Beaulieu may be regarded as the leading representative in France of orthodox political economy, and the most pronounced opponent of protectionist and collectivist doctrines. He was elected a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences () is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special responsibility for promoting nat ...

in 1880. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1881. He was the brother of Henri Jean Baptiste Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu (1842-1912), who was a publicist and historian.

References

* * Ebeling, Richard M.
"Paul Leroy-Beaulieu: A Warning Voice About the Socialist Tragedy to Come,"
Future of Freedom Foundation, January 29, 2018.

External links

Texts of Leroy-Beaulieu can be found in Gallica
* *
The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians. Part I: The Country and its Inhabitants
', 1893. Translated from the French by Z.A. Ragozin. (A
Internet Archive
*
The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians. Part II: The Institutions
', 1894. Translated from the French by Z.A. Ragozin. A
Internet Archive
*
The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians. Part III: The Religion
', 1896. Translated from the French by Z.A. Ragozin. (A
Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leroy-Beaulieu, Pierre Paul 1843 births 1916 deaths People from Saumur 19th-century French economists 20th-century French economists French classical liberal economists French Liberal School Academic staff of the Collège de France Officers of the Legion of Honour Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Pierre Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...

International members of the American Philosophical Society