Comte and Dunoyer Title Pages

The work of Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer spanning the years from 1814 to 1830 demonstrates that a reassessment of the nature of nineteenth century liberalism in general, and early nineteenth century French liberalism in particular, is required. The picture of nineteenth century liberalism which emerges from traditional accounts does not prepare one for the kind of liberalism advocated by Comte and Dunoyer, with their ideas of class analysis, exploitation, the relationship between the mode of production and political culture, and the historical evolution from one mode of production to another through definite stages of economic development.

We have been told that liberals restricted themselves to purely political concerns, such as freedom of speech and constitutional government, or economic concerns, such as free trade and deregulation, and eschewed the so-called "social" issues of class and exploitation. I will argue in this work that there was a group of liberals in Restoration France which does not fit this traditional view. Charles Comte and Charles Dunoyer combined a traditional liberal concern with political and constitutional liberty and a social theory of class and exploitation which they developed during the late 1810s and 1820s. I discuss at some length their interest in the nature of slave labour, in particular its profitability and its class structure, as well as Dunoyer's industrialist theory of history. Since their strong advocacy of private property, individual liberty and laissez-faire economic policies makes it impossible to classify them as "proto-socialists" or "early socialists" however much their theories may have influenced later socialists including Karl Marx, one is obliged to classify them as liberals. Yet, they are quite unlike the mainstream liberals of the early nineteenth century we have come to know through traditional accounts. It is my conclusion that historians, with a very few exceptions, have badly misunderstood the nature of early nineteenth century liberalism by focusing excessively on political and economic policy matters. A study of liberals like Comte and Dunoyer shows there is another dimension to liberalism which has never been adequately appreciated, a "social" dimension in which the problems of class, exploitation and the evolution of societies through definite economic stages played an important rôle.

B. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work is an expanded, book-length version of my PhD dissertation submitted at King's College, Cambridge. Above all I would like to thank Leonard P. Liggio, President of the Institute for Humane Studies, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia for first showing me the importance and continuing relevance of early nineteenth century French liberalism. His support and interest in my work has extended to three continents over more years than I like to remember. I would also like to thank Steve Davies, an Academic Fellow of the IHS, for his considerable assistance in rethinking the structure of the dissertation.

Funding for my study first at Stanford University, California and then at King's College, Cambridge came from a variety of sources. I would like to thank the Liberty Fund, the Institute for Humane Studies, the Claude Lambe Fellowship, the Commonwealth Bursaries, and the ORS for their financial support. Also King's College kindly made travel money available to me in order to work in London. The bulk of my research was done at the libraries of the University of Cambridge and the University of London. In particular I would like to thank the librarians of the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London and the librarians of the Acton Collection at the University Library of Cambridge for their assistance. I would also like to thank the following individuals who have assisted me over the years it has taken to write this dissertation: my supervisor Richard Tuck, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge; Robert Dare, Department of History, University of Adelaide, who cast a critical and experienced eye over an almost finished dissertation; and Walter E. Grinder, Vice-President for Academic Affairs, Institute for Humane Studies.

Part of the original dissertation was written while I was teaching at the University of Adelaide. I would like to the thank the faculty members and secretarial staff of the History Department for their material and moral support during this time.

In many ways this dissertation and book would not have been written without the friendship and support of my wife and companion Fran Colley and my neighbour and fellow music lover in Cambridge, Horst Loeschmann.

Table of Contents

A. ABSTRACT

B. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS