Léonard Joseph (Léon) Faucher (; 8 September 1803 – 14 December 1854) was a French politician and economist.

Biography

Faucher was born at Limoges, Haute-Vienne. When he was nine years old the family moved to

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

, where the boy was sent to school. His parents were separated in 1816, and Léon Faucher, who resisted his father's attempts to put him to a trade, helped to support himself and his mother during the rest of his school career by designing embroidery and needlework. As a private tutor in Paris he continued his studies in the direction of

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsca ...

and history, but with the revolution of 1830 he was drawn into active political journalism on the Liberal side. He was on the staff of the ''Temps'' from 1830 to 1833, when he became editor of the ''Constitutionnel'' for a short time. A Sunday journal of his own, ''Le Bien public'', proved a disastrous financial failure; and his political independence having caused his retirement from the ''Constitutionnel'', he joined in 1834 '' Le Courrier français'', of which he was editor from 1839 until 1842, when the paper changed hands. Leon-Faucher

Faucher was an early member of the Société d'économie politique organized in 1842 by

Pellegrino Rossi Pellegrino Luigi Odoardo Rossi (13 July 1787 – 15 November 1848) was an Italian economist, politician and jurist. He was an important figure of the July Monarchy in France, and the minister of justice in the government of the Papal States, unde ...

. He belonged in policy to the dynastic Left, and consistently preached moderation to the more ardent Liberals. On resigning his connection with the ''Courrier français'' he gave his attention chiefly to many economic questions. He advocated a customs union between the Latin countries to counterbalance the German

Zollverein The (), or German Customs Union, was a coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories. Organized by the 1833 treaties, it formally started on 1 January 1834. However, its foundations had b ...

, and in view of the impracticability of such a measure narrowed his proposal in 1842 to a customs union between France and

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

.He helped to organize the

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

association for free-trade propaganda, and it was as an advocate of free trade that he was elected in 1847 to the chamber of deputies for Reims. After the

revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europe ...

he entered the Constituent Assembly for the department of Marne, where he opposed many Republican measures – the limitation of the hours of labour, the creation of the national relief works in Paris, the abolition of the death penalty and others. Under the presidency of

Louis Napoleon Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A nephew ...

he became minister of public works, and then minister of the interior, but his action in seeking to influence the coming elections by a circular letter addressed to the prefects was censured by the Constituent Assembly, and he was compelled to resign office on 14 May 1849. In 1851 he was again minister of the interior until Napoleon declared his intention of resorting to universal suffrage. After the coup d'état of December he refused a seat in the consultative commission instituted by Napoleon. He had been elected a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Science in 1849, and his retirement from politics permitted a return to his writings on economics. He had been to

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in search of health in 1854, and was returning to Paris on business when he was seized by

typhoid Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by ''Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several d ...

at Marseilles, where he died.

Works

In 1843 Faucher visited England to study the English social system, publishing the results of his investigations in a noted series of ''Etudes sur l'Angleterre'' (2 vols., 1845), published originally in the '' Revue des deux mondes''. His miscellaneous writings were collected (2 vols., 1856) as ''Mélanges d'economie politique et de finance'', and his speeches in the legislature are printed in vol. ii. of ' (2 vols., 2nd ed., Paris, 1875).

References

Sources

External links

* Attribution * Faucher was head of France's government at the end of the Second Republic in 1851. There were no Prime Ministers until the end of the

Second Empire Second Empire may refer to: * Second British Empire, used by some historians to describe the British Empire after 1783 * Second Bulgarian Empire (1185–1396) * Second French Empire (1852–1870) ** Second Empire architecture, an architectural styl ...

, and as a result, the next Prime Minister was named in 1869. {{DEFAULTSORT:Faucher, Leon 1803 births 1854 deaths People from Limoges Politicians from Nouvelle-Aquitaine Party of Order politicians Prime Ministers of France French interior ministers French Ministers of Public Works Members of the 7th Chamber of Deputies of the July Monarchy Members of the 1848 Constituent Assembly Members of the National Legislative Assembly of the French Second Republic French economists Members of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery