Sismondi, J C L Simonde de

Sismondi, J(ean-) C(harles-) L(éonard) Simonde de

(born May 9, 1773, Geneva, Switz.—died June 25, 1842, Chêne, near Geneva) Swiss economist and historian. He worked in a French bank from 1789, then moved to Tuscany in 1794 with his family to farm. Living in his native Geneva from 1800, he wrote his History of the Italian Republics in the Middle Ages (1809–18), which inspired the leaders of the Risorgimento. In his influential New Principles of Political Economy (1819), he criticized capitalism and argued for regulation of economic competition and for a balance between production and consumption. He urged social reforms to improve working-class living conditions. His theories influenced later economists such as Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes.