Europe’s first historian of political thought, author of the preface to The Wealth of Nations, and also the first figure to acquire a business school in his lifetime and become its dean, Adolphe Blanqui (1798–1854) has nevertheless become a somewhat neglected figure. A few years after the bicentenary of the school he presided over—the oldest of the main management education institutions of the nineteenth century, which still exists today—this essay aims to place his life and work in context before exploring the main themes of his educational philosophy and his lasting legacy. Blanqui was a great European, devoted to certain principles in the education of future entrepreneurs and ‘traders’: combatting ugliness, learning how to deal with difference, and leading by example while also keeping pace with technical evolutions. We conclude by insisting on the importance, then and now, of situating management training within the context of geopolitical, aesthetic and ethical factors.