He continued his studies at the
Catholic University of Louvain and afterwards at
Ghent, where he came under the influence of
François Huet [
nl] the philosopher and
Christian Socialist. In 1844 he won a prize with an essay on the language and literature of
Provence. In 1847, he published L'Histoire des rois francs, and in 1861 a French version of the Nibelungenlied, but though he never lost his interest in literature and history, his most important work was in the domain of economics.[4]
He was one of a group of young lawyers doctors and critics, all old pupils of Huet, who met once a week to discuss social and economic questions and thus was led to publish his views on these subjects. In 1859 some articles by him in the Revue des deux mondes laid the foundation of his reputation as an economist. In 1864 he was elected to the chair of
political economy at the state
University of Liège. Here he wrote his most important works:[4]
La Russie et l'Autriche depuis Sadowa, 1870.
Essai sur les Formes de Gouvernement dans les Sociétés Modernes, 1872.
Des Causes Actuelles de Guerre en Europe et de l'Arbitrage, 1874.
De la Proprieté et de ses Formes Primitives, 1874 (dedicated to the memories of
John Stuart Mill and François Huet)
Death and legacy
He died at the Doyon Castle (in present-day
Havelange), near
Liège on 3 January 1892.[4]
Laveleye's activity included the whole realm of political science, political economy, monetary questions, international law, foreign and Belgian politics, questions of education, religion and morality, travel and literature. He had the art of popularizing even the most technical subjects, owing to the clearness of his view and his firm grasp of the matter in hand. He was especially attracted to England, where he thought he saw many of his ideals of social, political and religious progress realized. He was a frequent contributor to the English newspapers and leading reviews. The most widely circulated of his works was a pamphlet on Le Parti clérical en Belgique, of which 2,000,000 copies had been circulated in ten languages by the beginning of the 20th century.[4]