French Engineers, Welfare Economics, and Public Finance in the Nineteenth Century

1978 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-668 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. B. Ekelund ◽  
R. F. Hebert
1982 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-328 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm Deas

The assertion that a country is rich, or a government is powerful, is usually followed by some description of what that entails. Conversely, poverty and weakness are not so often explored in all their detail, though they too are complicated matters. Public finance is one point of entry.1 According to Joseph Schumpeter, it is ‘one of the best starting points for an investigation of society, especially though not exclusively of its political life. The spirit of a people, its cultural level, its social structure, the deeds its policy may prepare – all this and more is written in its fiscal history, stripped of all phrases’.


Author(s):  
Luz Paola López Amezcua

Resumen. Francisco Eduardo Tresguerras (Celaya, Guanajuato, 1759-1833) es un personaje reconocido por su labor en el ámbito artístico durante los siglos XVIII y XIX, destacándose como arquitecto neoclásico en su natal Celaya y lugares circunvecinos. Sabemos además que a la par de sus actividades en el arte ocupó cargos públicos en el Ayuntamiento de Celaya, una faceta por cierto muy poco abordada, ya que entre 1807 y 1830, fue maestro mayor de Obras Públicas, síndico procurador del Ayuntamiento (1811-¿1820?), secretario del Ayuntamiento (1823), procurador segundo (1824), alcalde de primer voto y juez de Hacienda Pública (1827 pero rechazó el cargo), alcalde constitucional (1828), diputado suplente del Congreso de Guanajuato por el partido electoral de Allende (1828) y formó parte de la Junta de Sanidad (1828).Este transitar entre el siglo xviii y xix es una de las particularidades del celayense que nos permiten conocer los sutiles cambios que hicieron la diferencia entre la administración colonial y los gobiernos conformados una vez consumada la Independencia. Dicho lo anterior, se trata de abordar a lo largo de este artículo dos cuestiones: por un lado, la identificación y descripción de los cargos en los cuales Tresguerras se desempeñó como funcionario público y, por otro, revisar la influencia social que tuvo en las decisiones de su localidad, analizando las circunstancias en las cuales combinó el arte con la función pública. Abstract. Francisco Eduardo Tresguerras (Celaya, Guanajuato, 1759-1833) is identified as a neoclassical artist duringeighteenth and nineteenth centuries, standing as neoclassical architect in his native Celaya and surrounding places. We also know that alongside his artistic activities, he held a seat in public offices, an aspect very little studied: between 1807 and 1830 he was Master of Public Works, Elected City Attorney (1811-¿1820?), City Clerk (1823), Second Official Attorney (1824),Mayor of first vote and Judge of Public Finance (1827 but rejected the charge), Constitutional Mayor (1828), Acting Deputy of the Congress of Guanajuato for the Allende political party (1828), and also served on the Board of Health (1828).This move between the eighteenth and nineteenth century is one of the peculiarities of him that lets us know the subtle changes that made the difference between the colonial administration and the governments formed after Independence accomplished. That said, it is addressing throughout this paper two issues: on the one hand, the identification and description of the charges in the Tresguerras which served as a public official, and secondly, to review the social influence it had on the decisions of its location, analyzing the circumstances in which he combined art with function public.


Author(s):  
Steven J. Ericson

This chapter looks at the experiences and ideas that influenced Matsukata both in his commitment to aspects of mid-nineteenth-century British economic orthodoxy and in his predilection for unorthodox policies on certain issues. A widely held view is that, as finance czar, Matsukata rigidly applied the theories of orthodox finance he had learned from French economists during the nine-month trip he took to Europe in 1878. Some historians likewise claim that French scholarship and example provided the overall pattern for the Matsukata reforms of the 1880s. For the most part, however, French tutelage simply reinforced ideas that Matsukata had been developing since the Restoration, drawing on both Sino-Japanese and Western sources, ideas that he would go on to implement pragmatically after 1881. Matsukata and his brain trust had no single model for financial reform; rather, they participated in a global circulation of ideas and practices regarding public finance, including currents not only of Franco-British liberalism but also of German and U.S. economic nationalism.


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