Alban de Villeneuve-Bargemon

The Viscount Alban de Villeneuve-Bargemont (August 8, 1784 – June 8, 1850) was a French economist and politician.

A Catholic nobleman, he was among the first, alongside Armand de Melun, to denounce industrial exploitation and to introduce early social legislation.

During the Bourbon Restoration, he held several prefecture posts, including Tarn-et-Garonne, Charente, Creuse, Meurthe, Loire-Inférieure, and Nord.

He was appointed Councillor of State in 1828 but as a Legitimist refused to the oath to Louis Philippe following the July Revolution of 1830.

He criticized industrial capitalism for exploiting workers without moral or physical safeguards,[4] from a Catholic perspective.

Map about poverty in France, from Villeneuve-Bargemont's 1834 book Économie politique chrétienne