For those who don't know, Adam Smith's “The Invisible Hand” doesn't refer to a chef's sleight of hand when making mayonnaise or whisking eggs. Nor does it refer to the hand that some people keep under the table while eating. It refers to an essential dynamic of our beloved liberalism.
On reflection, however, I wonder whether the profession of the mouth might not have something to do with it. After all, Adam Smith was in Paris in 1765, a fabulous year that saw the birth of one of the pillars of Gastronomy, the restaurant.
But what, then, is this “Invisible Hand”, if not the art of not burning one's béchamel sauce? Although this expression has become emblematic of Smith's economic work, it is used only once in his 500 page book, “Investigations into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations”, published in 1776. (1)
In my distant class memories of economics classes, The Invisible Hand is a kind of natural aura regulating markets so that they find a permanent equilibrium. But a reading at the source to prepare this article evokes instead all the common benefit brought about by this generous hand by way of efforts directed towards personal interests.
I was somewhat disappointed by this discovery, as I had long indulged in the first explanation, so much so that I had taken the restaurant business as the ideal model for this hungry hand. For what other sector has all the characteristics of a perfect market, with its competition(2) , available information on prices, the fluidity of goods and players and...precisely at that time (3), an existential crisis that could serve as perfect breeding ground for the Glasgow professor's thinking. It was while researching Adam Smith's background that I realized that his trip to France must have influenced him in more ways than one.
Smith arrived in Paris in February 1764 with a young duke whose education he was responsible for providing in exchange for a generous annuity. He spent a few days in Paris with his friend David Hume before leaving for Toulouse, then the second largest city in France.
The two travelers took up residence with David Hume's cousin, Abbé Colbert.
Smith stayed in Toulouse for almost a year and a half, with occasional trips to Bordeaux and Montpellier. This gave him time to compare the industriousness of Bordeaux with the indolence and boredom of Toulouse, and perhaps to discover that the "Limited Company" concept had emerged in Toulouse in the 12th century to oversee the management of the Bazacle water mills.
As a lodger himself, he couldn't cultivate what little acquaintances he had gained (4). Perhaps he regretted not being able to meet them in a tavern like those on the other side of the Channel, which inspired “La Grande Taverne de Londres” in Paris in 1790. Perhaps he was missing a restaurant where he could get to know them better?
Smith also had time to get bored, and thus to begin a work that would a priori be the subject of this article, and for which we all know him now. Ah, to think that the “Wealth of Nations” could have its source in contemplating the productive flow of the Garonne...
Smith also had the opportunity to witness the provincial assizes in Montpellier. The state of Languedoc, one of the last to have institutions free of central authority, with its independence, prosperity and initiatives, was of great interest to the kingdom's reformers, who saw in this largely independent political entity answers to contemporary problems.
With his Duke, Smith returned to Paris in the winter of 1765 to join David Hume, who introduced him to many of the leading figures of the time, including Denis Diderot, author of the Encyclopédie, Benjamin Franklin, the kite-flying Founding Father, François Quesnay the physiocrat, and Turgot, the future Intendant of Finances and a liberal before his time.
Thus, in 1765, Paris saw the arrival of a great economic thinker, as well as its first restaurant, that of “Boulanger”, probably Mathurin Roze de Chanteoiseau, who, before being a restaurateur, was a liberal economist and philanthropist (5).
To make his nest, Chantoiseau had to innovate, as competition was fierce and corporations were on the lookout. Indeed, the “maîtres queux, cuisiniers, porte-chappes et traiteurs de la ville de paris” whose August 1663 statutes state that they work “to satisfy the most delicate tastes” can claim a clientele that others must forego (6).
“As for roasters, according to a 1628 parliamentary ruling, they are not allowed to deliver to homes or public halls, rules they do not respect" (7).
A decree of August 8, 1662 attempted to prohibit “wine merchants, tavernkeepers and cabaretiers and others” from meddling in “the art of the said maîtres queux, cooks...”. But an ordinance made it official, allowing them to “provide tables, seats, tablecloths, napkins and meats to those who will take their meals in their houses”(8).
Chantoiseau opened a business with an original positioning. His new "restaurant" offered food for the body as well as the mind, nourishing the former with broths that restored the stomach, and the latter with refinement in a quiet setting, with individual tables, offering a radically different environment from that of noisy taverns with their sometimes indigestible dishes around rowdy, intimacy-free tables.
Chantoiseau even ventures to offer sheep's feet (9)! It seems that one of the many guilds even sued him, and lost.
This innovation was a real success, as in 1767, Diderot recounted how he had taken a liking to “restaurateurs”. Would this same Diderot have had the initiative and audacity to invite a distinguished observer such as Adam Smith to one of these places, still too far from a reputable dwelling yet too close in appearance to those ill-famed places that were taverns?
In any case, as a keen observer of mores and practices, the effervescence of this sector could not escape him, with all its economic components in their purest form, such as the division of labor, competition, the circulation of information as well as that of labor, or the circulation of money. He could not miss either the hindrance caused by associations of interests such as corporations.
And when it came to everyday cooking, French cuisine had yet to distinguish itself from English cuisine. All things being equal, Adam Smith must have been privileged to be able to compare an a priori freer market for food in England with the more controlled market of Paris, even if agreements such as the one of 1659 between cooks, caterers and pork butchers allowed free exercise with conditions.
The rest is history. The restaurant would prevail and become the benchmark of culinary culture.
Which brings us back to Smith's main idea, namely that one person's gastric interest mixed with another's pecuniary motivation leads to the common good, namely a great Gastronomic culture as well as flourishing economic activity.
We'll end this short article with the two sentences that follow the one mentioning The Invisible Hand:
“Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. It is an affectation, indeed, not very common among merchants, and very few words need be employed in dissuading them from it” (10)
In other words, perhaps it's time to go back to the spirit of the Montpellier conference, or to liberate the vital forces of individuals to pull the homeland of Gastronomy out of its economic doldrums. The word of restaurateurs.
Philippe Cartau
Translated via DeepL with subsequent adjustments by the author.
(1) Recherches sur la Nature et les Causes de la Richesse des Nations, Adam Smith, 1776 ; disponible sur Gallica : https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9667142s/f11.item
(2) https://www.homo-economicus.com/quelles-sont-les-5-conditions-de-la-concurrence-pure-et-parfaite/
(3) Similar to those in 2024 with state interference.
(4) Vie d’Adam Smith, John Roe, 1895 ; également disponible sur Gallica
(5) https://www.ouest-france.fr/leditiondusoir/2022-03-22/le-restaurant-cette-invention-francaise-creee-en-1765-396cefc7-80c4-44f7-9cf6-2482f3aa5eff ; voir aussi https://histoire.wiki/mathurin-roze-de-chantoiseau/
(6 ) Histoire de la cuisine et de la gastronomie françaises, Patrick Rambourg, 2010
(7) Ibid.
(8) Ibid.
(9) Gastronomie française, Jean-Robert Pitte, 1991
(10) Smith, Adam (1776). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Vol. II (1st ed.). London: W. Strahan & T. Cadell. p. 35 ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_hand
Picture by Deepai.org
Comments