Georgism in France

Robert Clancy

[Reprinted from the Henry George News, May, 1955]

There is a small but intrepid band of Georgists in France. Against tremendous odds they carry on persistently, sending literature to influential persons, writing letters and articles for the press, lecturing-and publishing their quarterly paper Terre or Liberte (Land and Liberty).

I bad the pleasure of meeting some of these brave souls, at the international conferences in Swanwick in 1949 and in Odense in 1952 -- A. Daude-Bancel, the patriarch of the French movement, famous also for his leadership in the cooperative movement; Pavlos Giannelias an international figure of Greek origin, who has lived in Yugoslavia, Italy, Austria, and other countries, and who now helps to keep the French movement alive; and Max Toubeau, distinguished son of Albert Toubeau, who knew Henry George. These and others keep Terre et Liberte going.

The April-May-June 1955 issue of {this periodical has a number of very informative articles, and also a special supplement -- a pamphlet by Daude-Bancel entitled La Veritable Reforme Piscale (True Fiscal Reform). This pamphlet, published in cooperation with Contre Courant, is a careful analysis of France's current serious fiscal problem and a proposal to remedy it by means of the abolition of all taxes except one on land values. It is hoped that this pamphlet will receive wide distribution.

Among the articles in the issue is one on the current French "Poujade" movement an organized resistance to the ever mounting burden of taxes.

"We can find in the Poujade movement," states this article, also by Daude-Bancel, "along with excesses, especially verbal, and demonstrations, sometimes tumultuous -- some laudable aspects: proof that the powers-that-be and the treasury officials only act when the taxpayers descend into the streets. Shaken by the Poujade tempest, the fiscal eminences, who have until now treated the taxpayers with an ill-advised high-handedness, have just recommended correction to the collectors at the base (the fiscal scapegoats), and politicians are raising their voices more and more against the indirect taxes which outrageously burden the French taxpayers and are not surpassed in the whole wide world outside of Soviet Russia.

"For this considerable effect, we have to thank the leaders of the Poujade movement. They deserve more credit than the consumers who face excessive taxation meekly and are traditionally too docile.

"But true fiscal reform is not approached either by the treasury or by its adversaries." Daude-Bancel concludes by referring to the pamphlet supplement for the true answer to the problem.

In another article in the same issue, Max Toubeau discusses the rent tax and gives some interesting history. "Proudhon," says Toubeau, "in his Theor'y of Taxation, after having demolished with cold logic one tax after another, showing its iniquity, stops before one tax, the exceptional nature of which has not escaped him and which would not lend itself to any criticism if it were well established -- the tax on the value of land."

How many French economists have seen the land value tax!

"In 1879-1880," Toubeau relates, "there appeared simultaneously Henry George's celebrated Progress and Poverty in New York, and in Paris, two volumes by Albert Toubeau on The Metrical Assessment of Taxes. These two authors who worked on two sides of the ocean without knowing one another, reached by somewhat different methods the same conclusion; replace progressively all existing taxes by a land rent tax. …

"The centenary of the French Revolution, celebrated in Paris in 1889 with a World's Fair, gave rise to a number of conventions, and provided them (Toubeau and George) with the occasion to meet. An international agrarian conference was held under the presidency of Henry George, with Albert Toubeau as Secretary-General. …

"George and Toubeau decided to unite their efforts by means of an international federation with a permanent office. But the death of Albert Toubeau after the conference (February 1890) cut short, in France, the envisaged movement."

We learn elsewhere in Terre et Liberte that the Ligue pour la Reforme Fonciere, Fiscale et le Libre-Exchange (League for Land and Tax Reform and Free Trade) was founded in 1925 by Sam Meyer, a Georgist, and Charles Gide, the distinguished French economist who was sympathetic to Georgist ideals. Gide died and Meyer was the victim of Nazi persecution. Daude-Bancel now heads the league.

Small in numbers, the Georgists of France appeal to friends for an expanded movement. They would like to publish more tracts like True Fiscal Reform, distribute widely these tracts and Terre et Liberte, and eventually publish their periodical as a bi-monthly. To this end contributions are requested and should be sent to Terre et Liberte, 3 bis, rue Pasteur, Mesnil-Esnard (Seine-Inf.), France.

There is much in the past and present of France that should draw favorable response to the George philosophy. The Physiocrats, economists like Say, Bastiat, Proudhon and Gide -- all saw truths that Henry George saw. The "anti-tax" fervor and the current economic problems provide occasions for increased effort. May we not hope - and help, if we can - that Georgism will take firmer root in France than it has until now?

One of France's contributions which has an affinity with the Georgist philosophy is the much maligned laissez faire, laissez passer doctrine. Since this expression cannot very well be translated literally into English (let do, let pass), it has therefore been taken over as is into our economic terminology. I would like to quote from a pamphlet by Hart Buck entitled Freedom to Shop Around (published by the Foundation for Economic Education): "The other day a man said, 'Laissez faire is dead' …

Presumably this personage thought that laissez faire means let things slide.' It doesn't. It means exactly what it says: let goods be made; let things be done; let there be production."

Laissez faire, laissez passer -- let goods be produced and let them be traded freely. Terre et Liberte traces the history of this celebrated doctrine in an article by Andre Louvegnies, as follows:

Origins of the Formula
Laissez Faire, Laissez Passer

Although this maxim is commonly attributed to Francois Quesnay (1694-1774), economist and physician to the King, and founder of the Physiocratic school, its origin is uncertain. We must furthermore distinguish between the two parts of the formula, for the idea of laissez faire is older than the second part.

In the very general sense of confidence in nature, on which we can rely to repair disorders and upsets, this expression was already used at the end of the 16th century by Montaigne: "We should let nature do a little (laissons faire un peu Ia nature), she understands her business better than we." (Essays, 1588).

In the middle of the 17th century, we find it used by an author of maxims, Balthasar Gracian, whose work appeared in 1647 and was translated from Spanish (into French) under the title, L'Homnie de Cour (The Man of the Court). This work enjoyed an extraordinary success, having gone into 18 editions by 1808. Balthasar Gracian writes:

"There is no better remedy for some disorders than to let them pass (les laisser passer), for in the end they stop themselves. Very often, the disease comes from the remedies. It is not the worst rule in life to let things go.

But it is Pierre de Boisguillebert (1646-1714), precursor of the Physiocrats, who first gave to laissez faire its full economic meaning:

"It is only at the point of the sword that the police can maintain its power in these encounters (between buyers and sellers) ; but there is an order provided by nature, or providence . . . In the commerce of life, she has given such an order that, provided we let her act (pourvu qu'on Ia laisse faire), it will not permit the strongest, in buying goods from the weakest, to prevent the latter from gaining his livelihood from the sale. I have said; provided we let nature act, that is, that we give her the freedom to perform, and that no one interfere with trade except to give protection to all and to prevent violence . . . There has been too much interference with the trading of grain and liquor, the economy of which ought to be left absolutely to nature, as in all other cases."

To the laissez faire of the philosophers and the economists, the Physiocrats added the idea of laissez passer and thus gave to the formula its definitive expression. But it is very difficult to give the credit for this to anyone among them in particular; according to some, the author was Vincent de Gournay (1712-1759), contemporary and friend of Quesnay. Thus, Dupont de Nemours, deputy to the Constituent Assembly and popularizer of Quesnay's works, wrote in his preface to a work by Turgot on Quesnay:

"M. de Gournay, having long been a merchant, had recognized that industry and commerce could flourish only with liberty and competition, which eliminate worthless enterprises and lead to reasonable investments, prevent monopoly, assure to traders the advantages of trade, stimulate industry, lower interest rates-thus the products of land are bought at the best possible profit to cultivators, and resold at the best possible bargain to consumers. He concluded that it was never necessary to penalize nor to regulate commerce. He drew this axiom: Laissez faire, laissez passer."

Turgot, friend and admirer of Quesnay, saw the origin of the formula in a statement made by a merchant named Legendre when Colbert, the finance minister, asked what favorable measures could be taken to encourage commerce:

"Laissez-nous faire (let us alone)," to which Quesnay added later: "Do not govern too much."

Still others, such as Oncken, historian of the Physiocrats, give credit to the Marquis d' Argenson (1695-1757) in his Memoris, for this maxim, Laissez faire, laissez passer.

It is almost certain that, if the expression did not appear until the 18th century, the truth that it contains was felt long before; also it is surely vain to look for the true author. Charles Gide and Charles Rist, in their History of Economic Doctrines, consider the phrase so commonplace that it belongs to no one in particular.

If, however, the Physiocrats have, in the eyes of history, won the credit, it is because they gave it its full meaning when they made it the motto of their school. Laissez faire, laissez passer springs from the doctrine of the natural order which exists throughout all phenomena and notably the facts of political economy. This natural order rules the production and distribution of wealth just as it rules the circulation of blood in the body; such is the sense of the celebrated Economic Table of Quesnay.