The essay aims to reintegrate the gift theory of Auguste Comte within the wide spectrum of strategies developed by the social sciences to counter the anthropological primacy boasted by homo œconomicus. In fact, in his Treatise on Sociology (1850-1854) – soon silenced, then removed and finally forgotten – this kind of wealth transfer paradoxically appears as one of the best practices to enhance the development of industrial capitalism, within the framework of a new «religion of Humanity» eradicating the theological-metaphysical dross embedded in the incipient science of economists.