In hmolscience, Nicholas-Francois Canard (1750-1833) was a French mathematician and engineer turned economist noted for []
Overview
In 1801, Canard, in his essay-turned-book Principles of Political Economy, gave his view that supply and demand are ontologically like contradicting physical forces. [1] American physical economics historian Philip Mirowski (2004) puts it like this: [2]
“Canard wrote down an equation of forces which determined price under nonspecific circumstances. Here the sellers and buyers were accorded a single function each, which price as the shared variable; psychological need is identified as the ultimate source of each function; equilibrium is equated with the balance of forces. Unfortunately, all specification of the sequence of actions by which equilibrium is brought about is absent, in clear analogy with d’Alembert’s principle in mechanics.”
Canard's essay “Principles of Political Economy” arose as an attempt to refute the Physiocratic "single tax" thesis. Contrary to the Physiocrats, Canard posited a labor theory of value, specifically that all wealth arises from the application of "superfluous" labor. He identified three sources of income: income from land, income from industry and income from capital.
Echoing French economic theorist Richard Cantillon (c.1680-1734) and drawing an analogy with the circulation of fluids, Canard discussed how these flows need to be balanced to achieve equilibrium and how the forces of individual interest and competition operate to achieve this balance. He discussed how the economy can be viewed as a system of markets and discusses how equilibrium prices are determined by the balance of opposing forces of buyers and sellers.[3]
References
1. (a) Canard, Nicholas-Francois. (1801). Principles of Political Economy, Work couronée by the National Institute (Principes d'Économie Politique, Ouvrage couronée par l'Institut National). Publisher.
(b) Savoiu, Gheorghe and Iorga-Siman, Ion. (2008). “Some Relevant Econophysics’ Moments of History, Definitions, Methods, Models and New Trends” (pdf), Romanian Economic and Business Review 3(3):29-41.
(c) Savoiu, Gheorghe and Andronache, Constantin. (2012). “The Potential of Econophysics for the Study of Economic Processes”, in: Econophysics: Background and Applications in Economics, Finance, and Sociophysics (§7, pg. 94). Academic Press.
2. Mirowski, Philip. (2004). The Effortless Economy of Science? (pg. 287). Publisher.
3. Nicholas-Francois Canard (Wayback) – New School University.
External links
● Nicolas-Francois Canard – Wikipedia.
