GALIANI, FERDINANDO

born Dec. 2, 1728, Chieti, Italy died Oct. 30, 1787, Naples Italian economist whose studies in value theory anticipated much later work. Galiani served in Paris as secretary to the Neapolitan ambassador (175969). Thereafter, he was in government service in Naples, where he helped to formulate and administer economic policy. Galiani wrote in both French and Italian, and his letters are valuable for their depiction of economic, social, and political life in 18th-century Europe. His correspondents included Denis Diderot, Voltaire, and Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot. He also carried on a spirited intellectual debate with Abb Andr Morellet, the spokesman of the Physiocrats. Galiani published two treatises, Della moneta (1750; On Money) and Dialogues sur le commerce des bls (1770; Dialogues on the Grain Trade), both of which display clarity of methodological presentation, despite his basic eclecticism. In the first work he evolved a theory of value based on utility and scarcity. In the second he stressed the necessity for the regulation of commerce, opposing the Physiocrats, who advocated complete freedom.