Political economy and other idioms: French views on English development, 1815-48

Abstract

This article investigates the role of political economy in the shaping of French views of British economic performance. It is argued that the potential of political economic for spreading a favourable interpretation of British development was not in fact realized until the end of the period considered. One reason for this was that earlier on, the image of economic Britain suffered from the legacy of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars, with a link often being established between British pauperism and British aristocratic, ‘feudal’ society and government. Additionally, political economy struggled to gain ascendancy over other modes of social analysis, like Saint-Simonism and the science of administration, which either combined with it, thus affecting its potential for a favourable understanding of Britain, or directly challenged it.