Edmond Paul was an important 19th-century Haitian intellectual and statesman, whose name is still remembered with respect. However, his ideas, and his economic ideas in particular,  are not so well known. This essay presents a summary of Edmond Paul’s economic thought in the context of his life and times. It begins with a brief explanation of why it is important to recover Edmond Paul’s memory, followed by a brief biography and a synthesis of his policy proposals. A complete bibliography of his works is included, with links to those documents that are freely available online.

The importance of rediscovering Edmond Paul

Edmond Paul (1837-1893) was a towering figure in the second half of Haiti’s 19th century. From a young age, he was a protagonist in an important debate about the country’s economic development, and he later became a politician with a leading role in a major party. He served as a representative (député) in the House of Representatives, mayor of Port-au-Prince, and senator. He was very active as a policymaker.² He published a newspaper, as well as several books and articles.

He was widely respected.³ Not only his friends, like Anténor Firmin,⁴ but even some of his political opponents, like Frédéric Marcelin, expressed their admiration for him.⁵ His reputation was not limited to Haiti: French economists paid attention to his work,⁶ and when he died, the New York Times published a glowing obituary.⁷

Not surprisingly, there is enduring interest in Edmond Paul as someone who had a vision for the country and tried to make a real impact. Historians have not forgotten him,⁸ and other scholars often invoke his name.⁹ Throughout the 20th century, Haitian newspapers republished excerpts or summaries of his writing,¹⁰ and more than one commemorated his birthday.¹¹ In 1947, a street in Port-au-Prince was named after him.¹² In the 21st century, Haitian publishers have launched new editions of three of his books,¹³ and others have made an effort to make him better known.¹⁴

What is frustrating, though, is that many of this emblematic figure’s works have been very hard to find for a long time, especially the earlier works where he systematically laid out ideas that he would later defend as a politician. Major scholars such as Etienne Charlier (writing in 1945) and Gérard Pierre-Charles (writing in 1993), for example, have only had limited access to Paul’s economic writings,¹⁶ even as they recognized that he “laid the groundwork for a school [of thought] and his influence is strongly felt in the evolution of our economic thought.”¹⁷ This legacy is sometimes distorted because of the incomplete familiarity with his work. Frédéric G. Chéry suggests that our collective ignorance of Edmond Paul’s work is not just an accident: Haitian social science has actively neglected the current of thought that promotes industrialization, of which Paul is the primary representative, partly because these ideas call entrenched interests and ideologies into question.¹⁸

Recently, an effort has been made to compile a complete bibliography of Edmond Paul’s works and make them available.¹⁹ Now, we can begin to fill out the picture of his ideas. This is good news, because understanding Edmond Paul’s economic thought is essential to understanding 19th century Haiti, and some would argue that it is still extremely relevant today, in Haiti and beyond.²⁰