François Joseph Charles Simiand (18 April 1873 – 13 April 1935) was aFrenchsociologist andeconomist best known as a participant in theAnnée Sociologique. As a member of theFrench Historical School of economics,[1] Simiand predicated a rigorous factual and statistical basis for theoretical models and policies. His contribution to Frenchsocial science was recognized in 1931 when, at the age of 58, he was elected to the faculty of theCollège de France and accepted the chair in labor history.
Simiand's career was unusual. Like many destined to become influential academics inFrance, he entered theÉcole Normale Supérieure andgraduated inphilosophy at the top of his class in 1896. However, he quickly became interested inlaw andeconomics and submitted a thesis on the wages of coal miners in France (1904) to the faculty of law rather than becoming an academic. As a result, he foreclosed forever the possibility of a prominent university appointment. Thus in 1901 he became the librarian for the French Ministries of Commerce and Labor, a post he held until the outbreak ofWorld War I. From 1910 on he also taught Economic History at theÉcole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, an institution which did not require a doctorate from its lecturers.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century Simiand joined the editorial board of theAnnée Sociologique. He became a central member of the group as editor of the economic sociology section and served as its expert on statistics. At the same time, as someone removed from the politics of French academics, he was at an institutional remove fromÉmile Durkheim's ambitions for transforming the French university.
Simiand moved further into the administrative apparatus of the French state duringWorld War I when he left his position as a librarian for work in the Ministry of Armaments where he played a prominent role in making policy. After the war, he served for a year as the Director of Labor for the province ofAlsace-Lorraine. In addition, he took up a more permanent position as a teacher at theConservatoire National des Arts et Métiers.
A student ofHenri Bergson andÉmile Durkheim, Simiand advanced a view of economics as a social science grounded in observable phenomena rather than convenient assumptions. This would imply a large program of historical and statistical research.Joseph Schumpeter, who denied the existence of a French or an Italian Historical School despite the historical current evident in their economics, acknowledged the significance of Simiand's contributions. In Schumpeter's view, Simiand should be considered a French Institutionalist.[2]
Simiand's views on scope and method, which appear inLa Méthode positive en science économique (1911),[3] were applied in his studies of real wages,[4][5] money[6] and long economic cycles.[7] They were applied in criticism of the work of contemporary economists, as well.[8]
[2] M. F. Simiand, Review of Jevons, Pareto and MarshallL'année sociologique pp. 516–45 (1909) New School Net (on line)
La Méthode positive en science économique (1911); inCritique sociologique de l'économie. Paris, PUF. VIISBN2-13-054756-7
Le Salaire: l'evolution sociale et la monnaie 3 vols., Librairie Felix Alcan, París (1932)
Recherches anciennes et nouvelles sur le mouvement général des prix du VXIe au XIXe siècle Paris, Domat-Montclirctien (1932)
Les Fluctuations économiques à longue période de la crise mondiale (1933)
"La monnaie, réalité sociale",Les Annales Sociologiques, série D, fascicule 1 p. 45 (1934); inCritique sociologique de l'économie. Paris, PUF. VIISBN2-13-054756-7
La psychologie sociale des crises et les fluctuations économiques de courte durée, Paris, Félix Alcan (1937). Originally published inAnnales Sociologiques.
^"La monnaie, réalité sociale",Les Annales Sociologiques, série D, fascicule 1 p. 45 (1934); inCritique sociologique de l'économie. Paris, PUF. VIISBN2-13-054756-7
^Les Fluctuations économiques à longue période de la crise mondiale (1933)
^Cf.[1]Archived 2007-02-03 at theWayback Machine M. F. Simiand, Review of Jevons, Pareto and MarshallL'année sociologique pp. 516–45 (1909) New School Net (on line)
Jean-Jacques Gislain,La sociologie économique, 1890-1920: Émile Durkheim, Vilfredo Pareto, Joseph Schumpeter, François Simiand, Thorstein Veblen et Max Weber, Presses universitaires de France (1995)
Robert Marjolin, G. Jaffe, W. Jaffe, "Francois Simiand's Theory of Economic Progress",The Review of Economic Studies Vol. 5, No. 3 (Jun., 1938), pp. 159–171
Gérard Noiriel, "L'éthique de la discussion chez François Simiand. A propos de deux conférences sur l'Histoire (1903-1906)", inPenser avec, penser contre. Itinéraires d'un historien, pp. 47–61. Paris, Belin, (2003)
