De briefwisseling van Léon Walras

Summary

This review article is devoted to the correspondence of Léon Walras, edited by W. Jaffé. The first part of the article gives the outlines of Walras' life. Part two contains summaries of his correspondence with several well-known economists. The third part deals more in detail with the main contribution of Walras to economic theory,viz. his general equilibrium theory. One of the interesting points that are revealed, is the fact that several important steps in the mathematical formulation of the theory were not Walras' work but the work of others, especially physicists and mathematicians. In the last part of the article a few remarks are made with respect to the edition as a whole. Economists all over the world should be grateful to Jaffé for his valuable work.