This study aims to clarify the theoretical features of the concept of money according to James Steuart by focusing on money of account as an invariable standard. Steuart regarded money of account as an invariable measure in a sense that the value of the money unit could retain the proportion of wealth in the state. As a feasible method for realizing money of account, he proposed the method of mean proportion, which invariably sustains the value of the basket of gold and silver of equal value to avert the influence of fluctuations in the relative value of gold and silver. The relationship between the money unit and quantity of gold or silver should be readjusted based on changes in the relative market value of gold and silver. Therefore, money of account is based on the value of commodities. Although intentional adjustment was necessary to realize money of account, it did not repress the market but rather was requested by the market in Steuart’s Principles.

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When discussing the formation or emergence of French economics, studies tend to focus almost exclusively on the 18th century. Throughout this century, debates on luxury and population unfolded extensively, and intellectual discussions concerning the notion of self-interest and commercial society were considerably refined. Undeniably, François Quesnay’s monumental work, the Tableau Économique, also revealed the autonomous mechanism of the circulation and reproduction of wealth. However, these discourses of the Enlightenment were built upon the political and economic thought that accumulated during the 16th and 17th centuries.
While introducing some important recently published scholarly works, this paper examines the intellectual landscape prior to the 18th century, particularly the currents of political and economic thought in the 16th and 17th centuries, which tend to be overlooked in the French history of economic thought. This study reveals how the anti-Machiavellian writings on the education of princes played a significant role in shaping economics, how perspectives and debates often thought to be unique to the 18th century had already emerged in the preceding century, and how the physiocratic idea of agriculture as “true wealth” was not necessarily their exclusive domain.
This paper begins by reviewing Cecilia Carnino’s book on Conseiller d’Estat and Ryan Patrick Hanley’s study of Fénelon’s political and economic thought. It then concludes by briefly surveying recent research trends concerning the influence of 16th- and 17th-century discourses, including arbitrary or distorted interpretations, on 18th-century French political economy, such as the physiocratic school.

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This study aims to analyze the economic thoughts of engineers, which form “a school,” or one of the intellectual traditions of French economics. The study first clarifies the social factors that enable them to form the school of engineer-economists, their exact theoretical characteristics, and their inheritance and influence relationships. It then shows the characteristics of the economic thought and practices of the second generation of engineer-economists, from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. In general, French engineer-economists hope to compensate for market dysfunction with weak state intervention; however, there are significant differences between their first and second generations. The aim of the first generation, whose biggest challenge was economic growth through the development of transportation infrastructure, was to establish a method of economic calculations to prove the utility of these projects for an efficient allocation of limited government budgets. Conversely, the challenge of the secondgeneration engineer-economists, who lived in an era where some economic growth had already been achieved and economic disparities were becoming apparent, was to improve the lives of workers and build a harmonious society in which labor and management cooperate. The study further clarifies the content and significance of this "gentle reform" by analyzing the discourse of Cheysson and Colson, who mainly represent the second generation, and their envisioned reformer. Thus, this study attempts a comprehensive evaluation of second-generation engineer-economists in theoretical, applied, and practical fields.

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