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After having recalled the birth and development of the modern field of public economics, this article focuses on the centuries-old invention, development and application of the basic concepts of public economics by the bodies of French technical civil servants. This includes, among others, the normative criteria implied by the various forms and uses of the concept of the surplus, public pricing and the theory of value constraints, and the mixed or intermediate structures between public and private goods. The social, moral and technical reasons for these discoveries are explained. Conclusions for the present choices between private and public management are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gustave Fauveau, a French mathematician and economist of the mid-nineteenth century, presented in 1864 an innovative theory of taxation that has been largely overlooked by historians of economic thought. He provides a mathematical framework for the analysis of taxation, considered both as the counterpart of the benefits received from the State and of the taxpayer's ability to pay. This article examines Fauveau's contribution to fiscal theory. This consists of modelling his two major ideas: as the first author to apply insurance theory to the calculation of an equitable tax, and expressing in mathematical terms Condorcet's principles of taxation. The novelty of his analysis lies in proving, in both cases, the optimality of progressive or of proportional taxation. To give a complete overview of Fauveau's ideas on fiscal theory we present in an appendix two other contributions on taxation that were published separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]