Olbia

As part of the ‘Liberalismi eccentrici’ series, published by IBL Libri, a slim yet substantial volume has appeared in its first Italian edition. Written by the French economist Jean-Baptiste Say in 1799 and published the following year, "Olbia. Or, an Essay on the Means of Reforming the Customs of a Nation" has a rather eccentric genesis and content. Edited and with an introduction by Antonio Casu, the work was submitted by Say to a competition organised by the Moral and Political Sciences Class of the Institut de France. The aim was to gather contributions aimed at devising socio-economic reforms for post-revolutionary France. Although Olbia did not win, what the Italian reader can now read – thanks to the translation by the late sociologist Giorgio Pacifici – is an interesting example of a ‘bourgeois utopia’. Say’s work fits squarely within the tradition of utopian narratives: unlike, however, most well-known utopias – see Massimo Baldini’s The History of Utopias – in which private property is an evil to be eradicated and human nature must be corrected by ‘those in the know’ with a view to creating a closed, collectivist society, the French economist’s liberal contribution envisages a good society governed by the middle classes.

According to Say, the balance between freedom and virtue plays a crucial role in the creation of such a society. It is not a matter of moulding a ‘new man’ from scratch, but rather of ensuring that good institutions—and, consequently, good behaviour—are fostered. Olbia, which does not refer to the Sardinian city of the same name but takes its title from a 1660 book by John Sadler, recounts the happy experience of a people who enjoy ‘a freedom founded on good laws’. Alberto Mingardi recalled how Francesco Ferrara, in the introduction to the seventh volume of the ‘Biblioteca degli Economisti’, had noted Say’s affinity with Adam Smith: for the Frenchman, Ferrara stated, a sound economic system was ‘the indispensable condition for human well-being, and human well-being was equally indispensable for establishing the morality of peoples’. This idea is subsequently found in later thinkers such as Charles Dunoyer. In short, economics and ethics are by no means enemies, but rather the pillars of a sound human order in which freedom and virtue support one another. At the end of his essay, Say includes some maxims by Benjamin Franklin, amongst which is this: “Idleness walks so slowly that Poverty overtakes it all at once”.

   

Jean-Baptiste Say
, Olbia
IBL Libri, 110 pp., 16 euros