Jean Charles Léonard Simonde de Sismondi (1773-1842) was a Swiss-born historian and political economist. In his histories of France and Italy he placed particular emphasis on the development of constitutional government.

Born on May 9, 1773, Simonde de Sismondi spent a happy childhood on the Swiss country estate of his wealthy aristocratic family. He was educated by his family and by tutors to an ideal of noble service for his fellowman. The family's money had been invested in French public bonds, however, and the collapse of these funds before and during the French Revolution brought about the family's financial ruin. Sismondi worked as a clerk in a countinghouse in Lyons and proved to be a highly competent economist until the fervor of the Revolution drove the family back to Geneva in 1792. Briefly imprisoned there as aristocrats, although they had strong republican sympathies, the Sismondi family fled to England...