Charles Brook Dupont-White

Charles Brook Dupont-White (11 December 1807 – 10 December 1878) was a French lawyer and statist socialist economist.

He was the father of Cécile Dupont-White, wife of French President Sadi Carnot.

Biography

Family origins

Charles Dupont-White is the son of Jean-Théodore Dupont and Mary White, of British origin. According to family legend, Jean-Théodore Dupont was the natural son of Charles-Marie de Créquy (1737–1801), marquis of Créquy and Hermont, who belonged to one of the oldest families in France, raised to the rank of duke in 1663 with Charles III de Créquy.

Professional career

As a young lawyer, Dupont-White became famous with the publication of his Essay on the Relations of Labor with Capital (1846). He was 39 years old at the time, and the success of this book led to his appointment the following year to the Luxembourg Commission by Louis Blanc, a member of the provisional government charged with preparing the Second Republic following the 1848 Revolution.

The task of this Commission was to prepare the social reforms to be submitted to the future National Assembly. It was led by a permanent committee of ten workers, ten employers and ten personalities: among them, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (who refused), Victor Considerant (disciple of Fourier), Constantin Pecqueur (disciple of Saint-Simon), Frédéric Le Play and Charles Brook Dupont-White, a lawyer, who thus entered public life (he was later appointed prefect, before becoming secretary general of the Ministry of Justice).