Georges d'Avenel

Georges, vicomte d'Avenel (2 June 1855 – 7 February 1939) was a French historian and economist.

Biography

Georges d'Avenel was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine. After having renounced a career as a senior civil servant in protest against the laws on congregations, he became a polygrapher.

Georges d'Avenel held editorial functions at the Revue des deux Mondes and authored several works. His main interest was in economic history, a field in which he produced his greatest work, Economic history of property, wages, commodities and all prices in general, from the year 1200 to the year 1800 (1894–1926).

Based on the collection and exploitation of fifty to sixty thousand prices of articles of all kinds, this work, which represented the first true quantitative history of prices in France, received two Rossi prizes from the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques and was published, on the recommendation of the Committee of Historical and Scientific Works, at the expense of the Ministry of Public Instruction, but was nevertheless immediately the subject of strong criticism concerning its methodological imperfection, notably from Charles Seignobos.

If he was received coolly by French historians, this was not the case for certain economists who used his work, from Charles Gide to Ragnar Frisch, by way of Alfred Marshall; and one can still find today in Jacques Friggit's book the commented resumption of his index of the price of housing in Paris from 1200 to 1800).

He married Laura Meinell, daughter of an American colonel, then Delphine Vaïsse, widow of Baron André Reille. From the first marriage was born a daughter, wife of Baron Gaston de Romanet de Beaune, and from the second another daughter, wife of Prince Éric de Broglie.

Georges d'Avenel died on February 7, 1939 at his home in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and was buried in the Bougival Cemetery.

Works

• Lettres du cardinal Mazarin pendant son ministère (1872–1906, 9 volumes; edited by Adolphe Chéruel and Georges d'Avenel)
• Les Évêques et archevêques de Paris, depuis saint Denys jusqu'à nos jours, avec des documents inédits (1878)
• Les Octrois, en France et à l'étranger (1881)
• Richelieu et la monarchie absolue (1884–1890)
• Chansons et chansonniers (1889)
• Annuaire de la presse française (1889–1890)
• La Réforme administrative (1891)
• Histoire économique de la propriété, des salaires, des denrées et de tous les prix en général, depuis l'an 1200 jusqu'en l'an 1800 (1894–1926)
• La Fortune privée à travers sept siècles (1895)
• Le Mécanisme de la vie moderne (1896–1905, 5 volumes)
• Paysans et ouvriers depuis sept cents ans (1899)
• Étude d'histoire sociale. La noblesse française sous Richelieu (1901)
• Les Français de mon temps (1904)
• Études d'histoire sociale. Prêtres, soldats et juges sous Richelieu (1907)
• Aux États-Unis: les champs, les affaires, les idées (1908)
• Les Riches depuis sept cents ans: revenus et bénéfices, appointements et honoraires (1909)
• Découvertes d'histoire sociale, 1200-1910 (1910)
• Le Nivellement des jouissances (1913)
• L'Évolution des moyens de transport: voyageurs, lettres, marchandises (1919)
• Les Enseignements de l'histoire des prix (1925)
• Histoire de la fortune française. La Fortune privée à travers sept siècles (1927)

References

• Demade, Julien (2018). Produire un fait scientifique. Beveridge et le Comité international d'histoire des prix. Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne.

External links

• Works by Georges d'Avenel at JSTOR
• Works by Georges d'Avenel at Gallica
• Works by Georges d'Avenel at Hathi Trust