The Diffusion of the Ideas of Saint-Simon in the Hellenic State and Their Reception Thereby (1825-1837)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to bring to light that specific persons occupied to transfer into the Greek milieu the ideas and doctrines of Saint-Simon, after his death in 1825. Saint-Simon’s name and doctrines were known to the Greek scholars of the Diaspora and especially to A. Corais’s circle. In 1833, when King Otho came to Greece, a group of Saint-Simonians fugitives ahead by Gustave d’Eichthal took shelter in Nauplion, the first capital-town of Greece. Eichthal proposed the establishment of the Bureau of Public Finance, inspired by Saint-Simon’s idea of a foundation of a «chambre d’industrie», which would play an advisory role in the Ministry of Commerce, as Saint-Simon described in his Du systeme industriel (1821). Despite the fact that the Bureau of Public Finance had an ambitious beginning, it was not as fruitful as expected. It is worth stressing out that Saint-Simon’s ideas have not been positively welcomed by the academic institutions.