4-83. Léon Walras

Léon Walras (1834–1910) was born in Évreux, the son of Auguste Walras, an academic inspector in philosophy. Walras obtained two baccalaureates: one in letters (1851) and one in the sciences (1853). He tried twice to pass the entry exam to the École polytechnique in Paris, and failed. He attended the Paris School of Mines, but failed to graduate. With the financial support of his father, Walras published articles on economics, inspired largely at first by his father’s ideas. In 1862, he found employment with the Chemins de fer du Nord, and later became the director of a newly-founded bank in Paris. It went bankrupt in 1869.

Walras’ fortunes improved in the 1870s, when he obtained a chair in economics at the newly-founded University of Lausanne, although he had no diploma to his credit. It was there that he published several treatises on economics, which engaged the attention of economists.

In 1877, Walras sent one of these texts, entitled Elements of Pure Political Economy (Walras, 1874) to Joseph Bertrand. Twenty-four years later, on 10 September, 1901, Walras sent a copy of the fourth edition of this text (Walras, 1900) to Poincaré, with a cover letter soliciting his opinion (§ 4-83-1).

None of Walras’s letters to Poincaré have been located, but Walras kept his drafts, which give a good idea of their content. In all, six drafts of letters from Walras to Poincaré are transcribed here, along with four letters from Poincaré to Walras. These ten letters, spanning the period from 1901 to 1909, were edited by Jaffé (1965). Walras himself edited one of Poincaré’s letters (Walras, 1909), after requesting and obtaining Poincaré’s written authorization (§ 4-83-9).

According to Jaffé (1977), Walras was motivated to solicit Poincaré’s opinion of his theory by criticism coming from the mathematician Hermann Laurent (1841–1908). The interactions between Walras and French mathematicians is discussed by Ingrao and Israel (1990) and Turk (2012), while Porter (1995, 69) considers Walras’ contacts with actuaries.

The literature on Walras is quite considerable, and well beyond what can be summarized here. For further references and details on the origins and evolution of Walras’s theory and its reception in the twentieth century see, for example, Walker (1983, 2000, 2006).

Time-stamp: "15.06.2023 22:19"