Commerce and Its Discontents in Eighteenth-Century French Political Thought

The roots of modern commerce and the origins of economics are usually traced to Adam Smith and his alleged celebration of free trade. Questioning this conventional story, Anoush Fraser Terjanian uncovers ambivalence towards commerce in eighteenth-century France. Through careful analysis of the Enlightenment's best-selling history of comparative empires, the History of the Two Indies (1780), her study offers a new perspective on the connections between political economy, imperialism, and the Enlightenment.