DUPONT DE NEMOURS Pierre-Samuel Éphémérides du Citoyen. [Puis :] Les Nouvelles éphémérides du citoyen.

INED, 1737; Coleman, Earl E. (1962) ‘Éphémérides du Citoyen, 1767-1772’. Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, Vol. 56, First Quarter; Bernard Herencia (editor) Les Éphémérides du citoyen et les Nouvelles Éphémérides économiques 1765-1788 (Centre International d’Études du XVIIIe Siècle, Ferney Voltaire, 2014); Théré, Christine, Loic Charles and Jean-Claude Perrot, François Quesnay Oeuvres économiques completes et autres textes. (INED, Paris, 2005); Zaperri, Roberto ‘For a new edition of the writings of François Quesnay. Bibliographical revisions and additions’, Political economy, studies in the surplus approach (1988); Sgard, Dictionnaire des Journaux, I, no. 377.

FEATURES :
(1)    A near complete set of the journal; complete for the period 1765 to 1772; missing just two issues for the period 1774-1776 (supplied in facsimile).
(2)    Contains the exceptionally rare prospectus for 1774. 
(3)    Contains the very rare special Supplement au onzieme tome des Ephemerides du Citoyen pour l’année 1768 ou Examen de l’Examen du livre intitulé principes sur la liberté du commerce des grains.
(4)    Contains the first edition of Turgot’s Réflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses in tomes 11, 12 (1769) and tome 1 (1770).
(5)    Contains the first edition of Quesnay’s Despotisme de la Chine, tomes 3,4,5 (1767)
(6)    Contains the first analysis of the economics of the slave trade in Lettre d’un voyageur à l’auteur des Ephémérides au sujet des observations sur l’esclavage des Negres, insérées dans le sixième tome de l’année 1771. 
(7)     Contains the exceptionally rare work of François Vauvilliers’ Lettre d’un gentilhomme des états de Languedoc à un magistrat du Parlement de Rouen sur le commerce des bleds, des farines et du pain (1768). pp. 47 which is bound in tome 12, 1768 of the Éphémérides.

“En un seul mot être vraiment ami des hommes: voilà toute la Philosophie Morale et tout l’Economie Politique” (Baudeau: Éphémérides 1771, tome troisième, p. 109) 

The Éphémérides du citoyen constitutes the first and the most outstanding economics periodical of the 18th century. The journal conveys the incredible sense of excitement of the ‘économistes’, as they were called, in discovering the science of political economy (‘la science de l’économie politique’). Here was a group of French intellectuals rationalising in a scientific manner the way in which markets worked so as to generate not just output but also economic growth. They were at the cusp of a major discovery and they knew it. They had a new subject which could be used to improve the lot of mankind. The examination of the continuous flow of articles and observations printed in the Ephémérides between 1765 and 1776 helps to identify some of the key features in the development of economics as a science.

Accompanying the evolution of the Enlightenment movement many of these writers had started to publish in the Encyclopédie, most notably Quesnay, and then through their own individual books and pamphlets. The économistes wished to go further to produce a journal where they publicly debated and promoted their ideas in print. The enthusiasm of the core group of writers led by the editors, the Abbé Baudeau and Du Pont de Nemours, supported in the background by the intellectual heavyweights, Quesnay and Turgot, is palpable on reading the journal. Assisted by the Marquis de Mirabeau, they wished to proselytise the French public to this new science of political economy which, in their opinion, provided a pathway for France and other countries, to move from a zero sum approach to economic activity to one that showed how growth, driven by investment in agriculture, could transform not just economic society but also the political structure.

By 1776 they believed that they had identified the core approach for political economy involving one master, Quesnay; a doctrine as elaborated in the Philosophie rurale and the Analyse économique; a formula, namely Physiocracy; and a technical apparatus as embodied in the Tableau économique:

‘Les vrais Economistes sont faciles à caractériser par un seul trait que tout le monde peut saisir. Ils reconnoissent (1) un maître [Le Docteur Quesnay], (2) une doctrine [Celle de la Philosophie Rurale & de l’Analyse économique], (3) une formule [La Physiocratie], (4) des termes techniques, précisement comme les antiques Lettres de la Chine [Le Tableau économique] (Nouvelles Éphémérides 1776, tome quatrième, p.111).

The Éphémérides published articles and commentaries by the leading economists of the period: Abeille, Baudeau, Butré, Carl Friedrich de Bade, Du Pont de Nemours, Franklin, Le Trosne, Lemercier de la Rivière, Mirabeau, Morellet, Pierre Poivre, Quesnay, Roubaud, Jean Nicolas Guérineau de Saint-Péravy, Turgot, Vauguyon, Jean-Francois de Vauvilliers. The Éphémérides contains the first edition of Turgot’s Réflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses, par Mr. X in volumes 11 and 12 of 1769 and volume 1, 1770 (In our copy there is a contemporary handwritten annotation on the first page of the text of the Réflexions, page 14 of volume 11, 1769, stating ‘Je presume que ce morceau est de M.Turgot’!). 

The économistes realised that they needed to look outside French borders to learn about best practices in other countries and so many issues of the journal are devoted to China, Japan, America where colonists were looking for appropriate political structures to provide a federal government, and the wide range of European countries. 

The journal, edited at different times by the founding editor, the Abbé Baudeau (November, 1765 to April 1768; 1774 to June 1776) and Du Pont de Nemours (May, 1768 to March,1772), was for many years the journal of the French Physiocrats. The Éphémérides appeared under a number of different titles: 

– Éphémérides du Citoyen ou Chronique de l’esprit national, November 1765-October 31, 1766. First published in November 1765 under the editorial direction of the Abbé Nicolas Baudeau. Between November 4, 1765 and October 31, 1766.  104 numbers of 16 pages each were published.

– Éphémérides du Citoyen. Bibliothèque raisonnée des sciences morales et politiques January 1767-April 1768. There were 16 tomes  published under the editorial direction of the Abbé Nicolas Baudeau. The journal was published on a monthly basis.

– Éphémérides du Citoyen. Bibliothèque raisonnée des sciences morales et politiques May 1768-March 1772, 47 tomes plus two supplements. Published under the editorial direction of Du Pont de Nemours. Each volume incorporating between 213-292 pages.

– Nouvelles Éphémérides du Citoyen. Bibliothèque raisonnée des sciences morales et politiques 1774 to June 1776. Published once again under the editorial direction of Nicolas Baudeau in 19 tomes incorporating 120-252 pages. It was Turgot that initiated the revival of the journal at this point in time.

The Collection

– Éphémérides du Citoyen 1765 Tomes I & II – 4, Nov., 1765 – 30 Décemb. 1765; Pp. iv, 272, ii; 3 Janv 1766 – 28 Févr. 1766. Pp. iv, 272, ii.
Contemporary calf binding with some worming at the bottom of the front cover and on the top of the spine. Some very small worm holes in the text.

– Éphémérides du Citoyen 1766 Tomes III et IV – 3, Mars, 1766 –28, Avril, 1766. Pp. iv,272, ii; 2 Mai, 1766 – 30,Juin 1766,  iv,288, ii.
Contemporary calf binding small hole in the leather of the back cover.  Some worming at the top of the text in gatherings between D iii and H.

– Éphémérides du Citoyen 1766 Tomes V et VI – Juillet 4, 1766-29 Aout 1766; Septembre 1, 1766-31 Octobre 1766. iv, ii, 256; iv, 288, ii. Contemporary calf.

– The Éphémérides du Citoyen 1765-66, complete in a uniform calf binding. 

The Éphémérides re-appeared in a new guise as Éphémérides du Citoyen. Bibliothèque raisonnée des sciences morales et politiques in January 1767. It was once again edited by the Abbé Nicolas Baudeau, but it now appeared on a monthly basis between January 1767-April 1768. The 16 monthly volumes of the journal in this format, incorporating between 200-244 pages for each volume, are bound in eight volumes in this collection. Seven of the volumes are in the same uniform calf binding as the 1765-66 volumes. The exception is the volume binding the tomes 1 & 2 monthly editions of 1768 which is in a contemporary calf binding with some slight damage to the front cover. There is also a worm hole on the upper pages, not affecting the text, for the earlier pages of the January 1768 edition. In tome 1, 1768 four pages (pp. 237-240) containing the table des matières is missing.  But for these defects the eight bound volumes of the collection for January 1767 to April 1768 collate exactly with the volumes examined by Herencia pp. 18-53.

– Éphémérides du Citoyen. Bibliothèque raisonnée des sciences morales et politiques May 1768-March 1772, 47 volumes plus two supplements. For this period the journal changed editors with Du Pont de Nemours replacing the Abbé Nicolas Baudeau, a change which would later be notified to readers in volume xii of the Ephémérides for 1768 (p. 214).

The collection is complete for this period. It includes in the tome 11, 1768 the extremely rare supplement, Supplement au onzieme tome des Ephemerides du Citoyen pour l’année 1768, ou Examen de l’Examen du livre intitulé Principes sur la liberté du commerce des grains – the author of this book has recently been identified as Paul François de Quelen de la Vauguyon, duc de Saint-Mégrin. The pagination for this supplement follows that outlined in Herencia (p.67) with one single exception that for the pagination for 23-25.  
Herencia’s pagination [IV-(1-2) – (75-94) – (23-25) – (97-120) – (49-50) – (123-142)

Collection’s pagination [IV-(1-2) – (75-94) – (23-24) – (97-120) – (49-50) – (123-142)

In a discussion with Bernard Herencia he admitted that he had mistaken the pagination and that it should read 23-24 instead of 23-25.  
The topsy turvy pagination of the Supplément suggests that it was inserted in haste in the Éphémérides. Over half of the copies of the Éphémérides did not have this supplement. Turgot in a letter to Du Pont on December 2, 1768 noted that the Supplément was not in the copy of the Éphémérides that he had received:
“J’ai reçu le tome XI des Ephémérides et j’ai vu avec grand plaisir qu’on n’y avait pas mis l’Examen de l’examen …” (see Oeuvres de Turgot, edited by Gustav Schelle, Paris, 1919, vol. 3, p.20).

Tome XII 1768 in this collection corresponds exactly with Herencia (pp. 67-71). Exceptionally it also includes another work Lettre d’un gentilhomme des états de Languedoc a un magistrat du Parlement de Rouen sur le commerce des bleds, des farines et du pain. 1768. pp. 47. This work was written by Jean François Vauvilliers, a Hellenist, later involved in feeding the Parisians between 1789 and 1791. Du Pont, a month earlier in the Éphémérides had written that this Lettre had created a great sensation (a fait une très grande sensation – tome XI, Éphémérides, 1768: 162). Coleman, citing both Quérard and Austin in his commentary on the ‘Éphémérides du Citoyen 1767-1772’ remarked that this work is of the greatest rarity. No copy of it was found in Du Pont’s library, nor was there a copy of it in the Kress Library, Harvard – see Coleman, p. 30.

There are two versions of tomes XI and XII in this collection. The first two versions are in the same calf binding as the earlier tomes; the second two versions, in a different calf binding, incorporate Vauvilliers Lettre d’un gentilhomme… in tome XI and the supplement Examen de l’Examen…in tome 12.

Turgot’s Réflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses was first published in three successive issues of the Ephémérides, tome 11, 1769, tome 12, 1769 and tome 1, 1770. In our collection tome 11, is in a poor half calf binding but the quality of the material in this tome more than makes up for the poor binding. It contains two other works Experiences et Reflexions Relatives au Traité de la Culture des Terres, publié en 1750 par M. Duhamel du Monceau (Paris, 1751), pp. xxij. This work is inserted at the front of the volume. The second, inserted at the back of the volume, is Baudeau’s Avis au people sur son premier besoin ou petits traités économiques. Second traité Sur la Mouture des Grains, & sur le Commerce des Farines (Amsterdam, 1768), pp. 69. In particular this volume contains many fascinating hand-written commentaries, elaborations of the written text and textual corrections. The owner of this volume appears to have been an ‘économiste’ for he is able to distinguish writers by the alphabetical letters on the articles in this tome. On page 7 he identified Mr B, the author of Fragment d’une lettre écrite de Marseille, à M. Le Comte de L.V. par Mr. B, as Mirabeau; again on page 99 he identified Mr. B as Mirabeau. He went on to identify Mr. A. on page 85 as ‘Quesnai’. On the first page of the Réflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses par Mr. X he wrote ‘je presume que ce morceau est de M. Turgot.’ On page 197 he identified the ‘Abbé Gagliani’ as the author of the Dialogue sur le commerce des Bleds. On the title-page of the Experience et Reflexions Relatives au Traité de la Culture des Terres he discussed Voltaire and Tull and made references to Smith, Arthur Young and Mirabeau’s Philosophie Rurale. On pages 230-231 in commenting on the Dialogues sur le commerce des bleds the owner of the tome discussed in considerable annotated details the price of wheat and his differences with M. du Pont on this issue. All of these author identifications suggest that the writer was an inner member of the ‘économistes’ circle. At the end of the third part of Turgot’s Réflexions published in tome 1 of the Éphémérides 1770 on page 173 the last line of the page in small print states ‘Novembre 1766 indicating that Turgot had finished the work on that date.

Some minor defects -There is a tear across the title page of the Éphémérides 1770 tome 6. It does not affect any of the text. There is a double insertion of pp. 187-188 in Éphémérides 1771, tome 4. Éphémérides 1771, tomes 9 & 10 (up to page 25) has a small worm hole at the bottom of the page not affecting any of the text.

Nouvelles Éphémérides 1774-1776

The collection is completed by the Nouvelles Ephémérides Economiques ou Bibliotheque Raisonnée de la Morale et de la Politique published between 1774 and June 1776. The appointment of Turgot as Controller General of Finances in 1774 gave renewed hope to the économistes and towards the end of that year Baudeau felt it would be appropriate to start publishing the Éphémérides once again. To entice potential readers a special prospectus, leading with Quesnay’s article Maximes générales du Gouvernement économique d’un Royaume Agricole, was published in 1774. This prospectus in its original wrappers, with most of the pages uncut, is of the greatest rarity. 
The Nouvelles Éphémérides for 1775 contains the twelve tomes in a uniform calf binding (6 volumes).  For the Nouvelles Éphémérides 1775 tome 3, the top right of title page is slightly damaged with no loss of text. There is some very slight worming at the bottom of the page, not affecting the text, from pages 215-224, continuing into tome 4, up to p. 5.
The Nouvelles Éphémérides for 1776 is missing tomes 3 and 5 (supplied in facsimile). Tomes 1 and 2 are in a half calf binding; tome 4 lacks its original cover with some damage to the title page and to the avis affecting text; tome 6 is in its original wrappers.

Overall Assessment

The collection is almost complete and has been fully collated with Herencia (2014). It contains all but two monthly issues (numbers 3 and 5) for 1776 – facsimiles of both of these issues are in the collection. The collection does not contain the Nouvelles Éphémérides économiques 1787-1788, edited by the Abbé Baudeau, which many collectors do not regard as the main series of the Éphémérides because they were published after the demise of the Physiocrats.

The collection contains, exceptionally, in its original wrappers, the prospectus for the new Nouvelles Éphémérides series – Nouvelles Ephemerides Economiques ou Bibliotheque Raisonnée de l’Histoire, de la Morale et de la Politique (Paris, Didot, 1774), a work missing in most of the extant collections of the Éphémérides. On page viii Baudeau, the editor, announced: “Ce petit Volume extraordinaire est pour annonce, et se donne gratis aux Souscripteurs”.

It also contains the Supplément to volume XI for the year 1768. Again this issue is missing from many of the extant collections of the Éphémérides. This volume is of considerable importance because it contains the article Examen de l’Examen des Principes sur la liberté du Commerce. This article attributed to N has been the subject of widespread debate as to its authorship. Some maintain that the author was Quesnay – see Zapieri (1988) and others, Théré, Charles and Perrot (2005), argue that the author was Abeille. Herencia (2014: xxi-ii) favoured the view that Quesnay, rather than Abeille, wrote this article. As noted above the author is now recognised as Vauguyon.

Unlike many sets this collection starts with the original issues of the Éphémérides du citoyen starting on 4 November 1765 and running through to October 31, 1766. This corresponds exactly to Herencia (2014), pp 1-17. In these issues there are some important contributions by the editor, Nicolas Baudeau, on the development of the French colonies in North America. He was highly critical of the French possession in Canada:

“Nothing was more useless, more cumbersome or more expensive for the State than the settlements in Canada […] the uselessness is the result of the very nature of the climate and its commodities which are identical to those of Northern France” (Ephémérides, July 7, 1766, p. 17 ‘Des colonies françoises aux Indes occidentales).

On the other hand, as noted by Alain Clément (2015) he was extremely enthusiastic with respect to the future of Louisiana making parallels between this colony and France:

“We are not so unfair as to include the Louisiana settlement in this same censure, as it was far more profitable, far less difficult and far less ruinous for the State’s coffers. The usefulness of this other colony stemmed from the nature of its soil and the types of commodities available there; all the objects that make our islands in the American archipelago so precious can be found at the mouth of the Mississippi and its nearby rivers and tributaries. Cotton, sugar, tobacco, cacao, silk and indigo were present in abundance for gathering” (Ephémérides, July 14, 1766, p. 21 ‘Des colonies françoises aux Indes occidentales’).

Baudeau expressed a strong desire in these issues of the Ephémérides for France to invest rather than to pillage overseas colonies such as Louisiana. Other physiocrats such as Quesnay and Mirabeau were ad idem with Baudeau on this issue of the value of Louisiana.

Rarity

Coleman locates 6 institutional sets worldwide (but only covering the years 1767-1772) :
1.    Eleutherian Mills Historical Library (Dupont de Nemour’s personal collection).
2.    Johns Hopkins University Library
3.    Yale University Library
4.    Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France
5.    Bibliothèque nationale, France
6.    Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève

Most of the volumes are in contemporary calf and a couple are in their original wrappers.

TWO AUTOGRAPH PIECES BY DUPONT DE NEMOURS

This remarkable collection is completed by two autograph notes by Dupont de Nemours.

The first being a subscription slip, partly printed, inviting the subscribers to continue their support to the publication of the Éphémérides. It is signed by Dupont, who added the note : autheur des Ephémérides. This note is moreover important as the Éphémérides were published anonymously.

The second piece is a letter, written by Dupont on board of a ship, the Aigle Américain. It is signed with his initials and dated 10 [vendémiaire] An 6. This date of the Republican, or Revolutionary Calendar translates into 1 October 1797. It is most likely it is his last note written on the old continent, before he fled to the United States after being put on the list of the unwanted following the coup d’état on 18 fructidor, An V (=4 September 1797). The ship was waiting for favorable winds before leaving from Île de Ré. Dupont de Nemours settled subsequently in New Jersey where he became a professor of physics and natural history.

“Nicolas Baudeau est de ces personnages qui ont joué un rôle essentiel dans le développement de la science économique et dont le nom n’est plus guère connu. Né à Amboise en avril 1730 dans une famille d’artisans, il est repéré par le curé de sa paroisse qui lui donne une éducation soignée et l’oriente vers les ordres. Devenu chanoine, il rejoint une abbaye du Périgord. Il y croise Henri Bertin, un haut fonctionnaire qui est nommé contrôleur général des finances en 1759, en pleine guerre de Sept Ans. En 1763, après la défaite, Baudeau écrit à Bertin pour lui suggérer quelques réformes qui, selon lui, permettraient de rétablir la situation économique du pays et la situation financière de l’État. La réponse polie mais vague de Bertin convainc Baudeau que l’esprit de réforme ne s’imposera que si l’opinion publique le soutient. Pour alerter cette dernière, il imagine de créer un journal consacré quasi exclusivement à cette science nouvelle qu’est l’économie.

Le 4 novembre 1765, il fait donc paraître le premier numéro d’une publication “grand public” adressée à l’ensemble de la population éduquée, dont le but est de diffuser largement une analyse axée sur l’économie de l’état du pays. Le titre est Les Éphémérides du citoyen ; la périodicité est de deux exemplaires par semaine ; l’essentiel du contenu est de la plume de Nicolas Baudeau. Le succès est immédiat et fait entrer Baudeau dans le cercle des intellectuels en vue de son époque.

En 1766, séduit par les thèses favorables à l’agriculture et à la concurrence des physiocrates qui entourent François Quesnay, il fait des Éphémérides du citoyen le porte-parole du mouvement. La publication s’étoffe et devient mensuelle. En 1768, Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours en prend la direction. Le journal se montre de plus en plus critique à l’égard du gouvernement et est interdit en novembre 1772. En 1774, l’arrivée au pouvoir de Turgot permet à Baudeau de relancer le journal sous le titre des Nouvelles éphémérides économiques. Le renvoi de Turgot en 1776 signe la fin de la parution de ce qui est considéré aujourd’hui comme un des éléments clé du succès intellectuel des physiocrates. En 1788, Baudeau tente une dernière fois de faire vivre les Éphémérides mais l’argent et les soutiens lui manquent. Il se suicide en 1792, déjà oublié” (Jean-Marc Daniel, in : Le Nouvel économiste, 03.11.2021).