Commerce and its discontents in eighteenth-century French political thought
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Bibliographic Information
Commerce and its discontents in eighteenth-century French political thought
Cambridge University Press, 2013
- : hardback
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-214) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Histories of economics tend to portray attitudes towards commerce in the era of Adam Smith as celebrating what is termed doux commerce, that is, sweet or gentle commerce. Commerce and Its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century French Political Thought proposes that reliance on this doux commerce thesis has obscured our comprehension of the theory and experience of commerce in Enlightenment Europe. Instead, it uncovers ambivalence towards commerce in eighteenth-century France, distinguished by an awareness of its limits - slavery, piracy and monopoly. Through a careful analysis of the Histoire des deux Indes (1780), the Enlightenment's best-selling history of comparative empires, Anoush Fraser Terjanian offers a new perspective on the connections between political economy, imperialism and the Enlightenment. In discussing how a 'politics of definition' governed the early debates about global commerce and its impact, this book enriches our understanding of the prehistory of globalisation.
Table of Contents
- Introduction: commerce and its discontents
- 1. Bon luxe, mauvais luxe: a language of commerce
- 2. Doux commerce, commerce odieux: the commerce in humans
- 3. Cette odieuse piraterie: defining piracy
- 4. Indigne ateliers: monopoly and monopolists
- Conclusion: commerce and its discontents.
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