Michel Chevalier was born on January 13, 1806 in Limoges, France to Jean Baptiste Chevalier and Marie Gurand. Chevalier studied at the École Polytechnique and received an Engineer of Mines degree (1829) from the École des Mines (School of Mines) in Paris.



Chevalier was part of the Saint-Simonian political and social movement, and edited the movement's paper Le Globe. Le Globe was banned in 1832, and as its editor Chevalier spent six months in prison. After his release, the French government sent him to the United States to report on the country's industry, financial and banking systems, and advances in transportation and communications. He later published Lettres sur l'Amèrique on his observations. After his trip to the United States, and a subsequent one to England in 1837 to observe the commercial crisis then occurring, Chevalier was given several political appointments. One of Chevalier's major political contributions was helping prepare the commercial treaty of 1860 between France and England, referred to as the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty. Chevalier later worked for many years as an economist and statistician at the Collège de France (1841-1879). Chevalier was also the president of a company organized in 1875 to exploit a projected submarine railroad between England and France. Chevalier died in Montpellier in 1879.



Statistician John Towne Danson, who lived in Liverpool (England), worked in several occupations during his lifetime: journalist under Charles Dickens at the Daily News, editor of the Le Globe, farmer, barrister, and marine insurance underwriter.