Jean Lescure's two-volume General and Periodic Crises of
Overproduction is a pioneering study of the causes and consequences of
industrial crises in capitalist economies in the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. The author, who held doctorates in political
economy and law, is most remembered as a founder of the French
historical school and a staunch advocate of empiricism in the economic
sciences. Lescure called his approach the 'complex historical method',
by which he sought to revise classical and quantitative economic theory
through the historical analysis and statistical observation of cyclical
phenomena. Ever the controversialist, Lescure wrote in an engaging
style, accessible to non-specialists and economists alike, and critiqued
the leading monetary theorists of the period, insisting that observation
of the movements in production costs, industrial orders and profits be
given priority over circulation and credit in understanding the periodic
crises of capitalist economies. In Lescure's view, crises were
inevitable in both market and command economies and their onset and
consequences were predictable with the help of the more detailed
production statistics newly available to economists and entrepreneurs at
the time. Observation of corporate profits, the margin between cost
price and selling price, provided the means to predict crises and
measure their impact, not only on industry and trade but also on the
working classes who would endure unemployment and the many social ills
that accompany it. Lescure, unlike many of the liberal economists of the
time, was always careful to include in his historical account
statistical analysis of unemployment figures, as well as those on crime,
marriage and birth rates, homelessness and suicide. Although he remained
sceptical of government intervention in the form of monetary policies
adjusting the money supply, and lauded the success of industrial
concentration and trusts in reducing costs and prices, Lescure admitted
the state's role in the recovery of the 1930s, when social insurance
schemes and investment in public works mitigated the worst effects of
unemployment for industrial labour.
This treatise, which grew out of his doctoral work, was a lifetime
project for Lescure, who updated it periodically over five editions, to
include each new cycle of growth, crisis, depression and recovery.
Volume one provides a historical study of economic crises from the
post-Napoleonic period through the Great Depression and the recovery of
the late 1930s.
Volume two offers a critique of the theories of crises, their causes and
potential remedies, in which Lescure outlines his preference for
'organic' theories that focus on the production process and qualitative
statistical observation of the movements in costs, selling prices,
industrial orders and profits.
The text of the fifth edition appears here in English for the first
time, unabridged and complete with editorial materials designed to help
the English reader understand the work on its own terms and situate its
author's prominent place in the history of economic thought.
