Following the failure of the short-lived Moldavian movement in 1848, Ionescu joined Bălcescu in Bucharest as a participant in the unsuccessful revolution in Wallachia. He served as leader of the radical faction in the commission established to handle land reform. After the defeat of the Wallachian revolution in September, 1848, Ionescu went into exile in the Ottoman Empire. Returning to Moldavia in 1857, he was extremely active as an administrator, deputy, and professor after the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia (in 1859–1861) in agrarian reform, agricultural education, and economic and statistical research. Ionescu de la Brad was a prolific scholar and writer on agricultural and economic topics, publishing over 40 books and pamphlets and nearly 400 articles.