Of all the authors we've chosen to include in the pantheon of 18th-century French laissez-faire thinkers, Abbot of Saint-Pierre is undoubtedly the most overlooked.

To be fair, it's partly his own fault. He wrote a great deal, but his style is hard to read and is full of repetitions. Even Jean-Jacques Rousseau tried to summarize his work: he began to do so, but soon abandoned the task, as he realized that it was beyond his strength. In the mid-19th century, Gustave de Molinari honored him by publishing a comprehensive work on him, in which he paid tribute to the pacifist and economist that the Abbot of Saint-Pierre was. But this was not enough to bring him out of oblivion, as he still remains in it today.

The Abbot of Saint-Pierre wrote about economics, but it's rather as a pacifist that he is usually of interest. He is the author of a Project for Perpetual Peace, which predates the well-known one by Emmanuel Kant.

In this work, he argued that war is destructive, not only for those who lose it, but also for the winners, and even for those who don't take part in them, since their commerce is affected.

To combat the scourge of war, he recommended the creation of a kind of European League of Nations. A European council would be formed to resolve the problems of each nation. Nations would therefore resort to arbitration, in order to avoid resorting to arms. If a nation was not wise enough to embrace peace, if it threatened the other European nations, the European league of nations would have a means to respond. Facing such events, a European army would be formed, with forces provided by the various countries.

There's also an episode in the life of the Abbot of Saint-Pierre that perfectly illustrates the critical mindset behind the French laissez-faire movement. He joined the Académie Française in 1695, but was expelled in 1718 for daring to criticize the reign of Louis XIV. In that, he aligned with figures like Vauban and Boisguilbert, who had also dared to speak out against the myseries hidden beneath the splendor of the Sun King's reign.

The Abbot of Saint-Pierre argued that the reign of Louis XIV, with its luxurious court and obsession with military conquest, was not the mark of a virtuous king. He refused to accept that Louis XIV deserved the title "Louis the Great".

"To ruin one's neighbors and one's people at the same time is not greatness", he said. This position deeply offended the Académie Française, which had long been preoccupied with glorifying the king in every literary form possible. As a result, they voted almost unanimously to expel him.

In terms of economic thinking, he consistently applied the principle of utility, much like Jeremy Bentham would do later, and often offered sound insights. To be fair, he was still influenced by mercantilist ideas, which no one had fully shed at that time.

Still, the Abbot of Saint-Pierre made some accurate observations about the economy. Even before Condillac, who is often credited with the idea, he stated plainly that in any exchange, both parties benefit. This can be found in his 1733 "Project for Improving France's Trade", where he wrote:

He also emphasized, before Vincent de Gournay did, the value of labor and the importance of keeping it appealing. "All labor is difficult", he wrote. "And when a man sees that his work pays him nothing, or not enough, he becomes idle and won't bother with unnecessary effort". This very argument would later be echoed by the Marquis d'Argenson, Vincent de Gournay, and the Physiocrats as they criticized burdensome regulations and guild systems. They argued that such restrictions discouraged workers, caused needless difficulty, and eventually made idleness seem more appealing than productive effort under such conditions.