The rise and fall of Walras's demand and supply curves

Walras is famous for his indication of how, in principle, demand curves can be derived from utility maximization. However, it is seldom recognized tha t Walras did not have partial equilibrium demand curves in mind. Instead, h e concentrated on the context of exchange. The 'general equilibrium' demand and supply curves produced by Walras and extended by Launhardt have subseq uently been almost entirely 'lost' in the literature, despite their central role in the analysis of exchange. They have been independently rediscovere d several times, but the approach has not been systematically developed. Th e derivation of Walras's curves is examined in this paper. It is suggested that the approach is potentially very useful, particularly in view of the i ncreased use of non-linear methods in economics.