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For the contemporary French economists, Rossi, who well personifies the relation between Italian and French thought in the 19th century, appeared as a mere disciple of Malthus and Ricardo. This interpretation was reinforced at the beginning of the following century by Gide and Rist, who asserted that his success was mainly due to the oratory eloquence of the style; and, later, by Schumpeter, who notes that, as to analysis, his Course is 'some Ricardianism diluted with a bit of Say". However, just his ricardianism, at a time when Say's theses were predominant in France, might be the genuine proof of originality. To support this argument, we focus on Rossi's concept of economic science and the importance he gave to it within the domain of moral and political science. We show that Rossi developed a method founded on what he called "general facts". Then we analyze the way he linked up the different sciences and defined the role played by political economy. Finally, we will show that his methodological approach led him to assign an essential economic role to the State and to develop a singular concept of liberalism, whose originality will be pointed out in the conclusion.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-25354-1_7

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