This is a note I put up on the Societies for the History of Economics website last night.
So far as I can tell, aside from Robert Owen’s New Lanark – which is now a World Heritage Site – there are no historic sites that one would associate with the study of economics. Yet there is, in fact, one that ought to be preserved in just the same way, both because of its association with one the greatest economists of all time and also because of its on-site interest as a place in which, even now, one can trace out the contours of the industrial revolution from the earliest years of the nineteenth century almost right down to the present. I refer here to the textile mill that was set up by Jean-Baptiste Say following his exile from Paris in 1805 at the hands of Napoleon.
Auchy-lès-Hesdin is a small village, and to be quite technical about it, is found in the Pas-de-Calais department and Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France. Say, who had been a journalist and writer, having refused to alter the text of his Treatise to suit Napoleon’s statist demands, went off to Auchy to start a textile mill. He went there because by the river sat an old abbey that had one specific feature, a waterfall which could be harnessed to run the machinery of the mill. The waterfall is still there, as are most of the buildings that were subsequently built on the site (but not the original abbey). These include the power plant that used to generate the steam when steam replaced water, and even more remarkably, an electric generator that was used even later that was driven by diverting the river past a water wheel.
There is also the “Château Blanc”, a massive three-storey house that Say commissioned to be built but which he never lived in since by 1813 he was able to return to Paris. There are also worker’s cottages nearby which are still lived in. So what we find, if you will excuse my enthusiasm, is a kind of Versailles for economists. The buildings are falling apart but are still intact. There is restoration work going on and there seems to be a determination to save this site for posterity if it can be done. But having just been there myself, I cannot tell you just how extraordinary it is. We on this discussion thread have an interest in history, and this is a kind of living history of the industrial revolution that is also a place of great interest because of its association with J.-B. Say.
At the moment, and I cannot tell you why, there is a collection of antique fire trucks housed in one of the buildings. But other possibilities are latent in how this site may be developed, including a museum for the history of economic thought. At the moment, there are some scattered artefacts associated with Say in place but things are at an early stage in thinking this through. I am off here in Australia but this is something that the European Society along with the UK Society should consider becoming closely involved with. And while it may not be politic to say it about a destination in France, as was pointed out by M. Zephyr Tilliette – who has written the history of Auchy and is an authority on all of this – the town lies midway between Azincourt and Crécy. It is also is a short drive from the Calais and Chunnel crossing points.
If I may be allowed to say so, this is a place you should visit if you get the chance. The website I am told is coming, but in the meantime you can make arrangements to visit the site by phoning this number in Auchy: 06.45.49.59.29. You will not be disappointed.
For some idea what you will find if you go, see this, which is an invitation to join J.-B. Say’s Nexus, which is something you might also consider:
http://says.univ-littoral.fr/?page_id=112
And I would go one more step and also suggest that you might join the International Society Jean-Baptiste Say:
I would emphasise here that in participating in both, neither is in any way an endorsement of Say’s Law. This is about Say and his pioneering work on entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur. It is also about one of the great early works on economics which is still worth reading today. It is thus one more reminder how studying the history of economic thought is of benefit in making sense of how an economy works.
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