French economist and politician, born in Warsaw and educated in Paris, but returned to Warsaw and took part in the revolution of 1830. Sent to Paris as secretary to the legation by the provisional government, he settled there on the suppression of the Polish rebellion and was naturalized in 1834. In 1833 he founded the Revue de législation et de jurisprudence, and wrote voluminously on economic and financial subjects. He established the first Crédit Foncier in France in 1852, and in 1864 became professor of political economy at the Conservatoire in succession to J. A. Blanqui. He was a member of the national assembly from 1848 to 1851, and again from 1871 till his election as a senator in 1876. He was a strong free-trader and an ardent bimetallist.
Of his works the following are the more important: Mobilisation du crédit foncier (1839); De l’organisation industrielle de la France avant Colbert (1842); Les Finances de la Russie (1864); La Question des banques (1864); La Liberté commerciale (1869); L’Or et l’argent (1870).
