Les crises et les institutions du crédit dans les écrits de jeunesse de Léon Walras

This article deals with Walras? writings on money before the Eléments (1860-1871). The central idea is to point out the progressive appearance of a first explanation of crises within a monetary framework still under construction. From the 1860s onwards, Walras always considered crises as the result of overcapitalisation. However, the causes of overcapitalisation and the mechanism leading to crises were considerably altered. In earlier versions of his theory, government budget deficits were ultimately considered as responsible for overcapitalisation. Reworking his initial theory, and under Victor Bonnet?s influence and a tradition dating back at least to Thomas Tooke, Walras abandoned his father?s approach to place squarely the origin of overcapitalisation on the misuse of credit and the working of credit institutions. In fact, Walras initiates before 1874 analytical developments that will progressively turn crises into elements endogenous to the workings of a ?spontaneously? organised competitive economic system.