born December 2, 1728, Chieti, Italy died October 30, 1787, Naples
![Ferdinando Galiani, engraving by Lefevre after a portrait by J. Gillberg.[Credits : Courtesy of Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz BPK, Berlin]](http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-media/33/11633-003-4069207A.gif)
Italian economist whose studies in value theory anticipated much later work.
Galiani served in Paris as secretary to the Neapolitan ambassador (1759–69). Thereafter, he performed government service in Naples, where he helped to formulate and administer economic policy.
Galiani wrote in both French and Italian, and his letters are valuable for their depiction of economic, social, and political life in 18th-century Europe. His correspondents included Denis Diderot, Voltaire, and Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot. He also carried on a spirited intellectual debate with Abbé André Morellet, the spokesman of the Physiocrats.
Galiani published two treatises, Della moneta (1750; “On Money”) and Dialogues sur le commerce des blés (1770; “Dialogues on the Grain Trade”), both of which display clarity of methodological presentation, despite his basic eclecticism. In the first work, he evolved a theory of value based on utility and scarcity; this depth of thinking on economic value would not be seen again until discussions of marginal utility developed in the 1870s. Galiani’s second treatise stressed the necessity for the regulation of commerce—an argument that opposed the physiocrats, who advocated complete freedom.
Link to this article and share the full text with the readers of your Web site or blog-post.
If you think a reference to this article on "Ferdinando Galiani" will enhance your Web site,
blog-post, or any other web-content, then feel free to link to this article,
and your readers will gain full access to the full article, even if they do not subscribe to our service.
You may want to use the HTML code fragment provided below.
We welcome your comments. Any revisions or updates suggested for this article will be reviewed by our editorial staff. Contact us here.
Regular users of Britannica may notice that this comments feature is less robust than in the past. This is only temporary, while we make the transition to a dramatically new and richer site. The functionality of the system will be restored soon.